Pic of the Week: Close-up of the Horsehead Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Horsehead Nebula captured by the JWST. (NASA, ESA, CSA, Karl Misselt (University of Arizona), Alain Abergel (IAS, CNRS))

This week’s image comes from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It shows a close-up of the well known Horsehead Nebula, which is about 1,375 light years from Earth. The clarity of the many galaxies in the distance makes this an even more amazing image.

Here is more about the image from the Webb Space Telescope site:

This image of the Horsehead Nebula from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope focuses on a portion of the horse’s “mane” that is about 0.8 light-years in width. It was taken with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-infrared Camera). The ethereal clouds that appear blue at the bottom of the image are filled with a variety of materials including hydrogen, methane, and water ice. Red-colored wisps extending above the main nebula represent both atomic and molecular hydrogen. In this area, known as a photodissociation region, ultraviolet light from nearby young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionized gas above and the nebula below. As with many Webb images, distant galaxies are sprinkled in the background.