Telescopes of amateur astronomers from about 5-inch (130 mm) aperture can resolve six stars under good seeing conditions.

The Trapezium may be a sub-component of the larger Orion Nebula Cluster, a grouping of about 2,000 stars within a diameter of 20 light-years.

Infrared images of the Trapezium are better able to penetrate the surrounding clouds of dust, and have located many more stellar components.

About half the stars within the cluster exhibit circumstellar disks that are dwindling, a likely precursor to planetary formation.

A 2012 paper suggests an intermediate-mass black hole with a mass more than 100 times that of the Sun may be present within the Trapezium, something that could explain the large velocity dispersion of the stars of the cluster.