The giant molecular cloud Orion A is the closest massive star-forming region to earth ( d \sim 400 pc ) .
It contains the rich Orion Nebula Cluster ( ONC ) in the North , and low-mass star-forming regions ( L1641 , L1647 ) to the South .
To get a better understanding of the differences in star formation activity , we perform an analysis of the gas mass distribution and star formation rate across the cloud .
We find that the gas is roughly uniformly distributed , while , oddly , the ONC region produced about a factor of ten more stars compared to the rest of the cloud .
For a better interpretation of this phenomenon , we use Gaia DR2 parallaxes , to analyse distances of young stellar objects , using them as proxy for cloud distances .
We find that the ONC region indeed lies at about 400 pc while the low-mass star-forming parts are inclined about \SI 70 \degree from the plane of the sky reaching until \sim 470 pc .
With this we estimate that Orion A is an about 90 pc long filamentary cloud ( about twice as long as previously assumed ) , with its “ Head ” ( the ONC region ) being “ bent ” and oriented towards the galactic mid-plane .
This striking new view allows us to perform a more robust analysis of this important star-forming region in the future .