  Diffuse far-ultraviolet stellar emission scattered by dust grains has been
observed in a region near the Orion Nebula. In addition to the scattered
stellar continuum, emission and absorption features produced by molecular
hydrogen have been identified. In this Letter, we present an analysis of this
absorption and fluorescent emission from molecular hydrogen in Orion. We model
the spectra obtained with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer using
optical depth templates and a fluorescent emission code. These results are
surprising because previous studies have found little ultraviolet absorption
from H_2 in this region, and the emission is coming from a seemingly empty part
of the nebula. We find that the emission fills in the observed absorption lines
where the two overlap. These data support the claim that fluorescent excitation
by ultraviolet photons is the primary mechanism producing the near-infrared
emission spectrum observed in the outer regions of the Orion Nebula.
