Measurements of magnetic field strengths in the vicinity of Orion

We have measured the line-of-sight magnetic field in two regions associated with the Orion Nebula. One region is the large H I cloud which envelops the ionized and molecular clouds; the field strength is 10 microgauss. The other is the large CO cloud just south of the Orion Nebula discovered by Kutner, Tucker, and Chin; the field strength here is also 10 microgauss. These results are discussed using the virial theorem. In the H I cloud, gravity appears to be weaker than the kinetic and magnetic forces, making this cloud unstable to expansion. In the CO cloud, gravity and the kinetic forces balance, and the magnetic field may be important in supporting the cloud