The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
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2010 May 13
The Magnificent Horsehead Nebula
Image credit ratings & Copyright:
Marco Burali, Tiziano Capecchi, Marco Mancini
(Osservatorio MTM)
Explanation:
Sculpted by stellar winds and
radiation, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud by
chance has assumed this recognizable shape.
Fittingly named the
Horsehead
Nebula, it is some 1,500 light-years distant,
embedded in the vast
Orion cloud
complex.
About 5 light-years “tall”, the dark cloud is cataloged as
Barnard 33
and is visible only because its
obscuring dust is silhouetted
against the glowing red-colored emission nebula IC 434.
Stars are forming around the dark cloud.
Contrasting blue
reflection nebula NGC 2023, surrounding a hot, young star,
is on the low left.
The gorgeous
color image
combines jointly narrowband and broadband
images recorded making a request three different telescopes.
Source:
APOD: Astronomy Picture of the time of day by NASA
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