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Credit & Copyright: Vic Winter and Tom Bisque (ICSTARS)
Explanation:
1500 light years away lies a nebula of quite
peculiar shape. How did the dark dust
cloud shown above
come to be shaped like a horse's head? Nobody knows!
Barnard 33,
as this region is known to some, is surely a dark dust
cloud absorbing the light from the bright red emission nebula
behind it. The Horsehead Nebula
is also thought to be a region where low-mass stars form. But
the reason for gross shapes in the universe is frequently poorly
understood. Perhaps there is no simple explanation in this case.
Some stars are thought to be
efficient creators of dust,
while others are much better at destroying it. The Horsehead
Nebula's dust distribution might just be the result of a specific
irregular distribution of stars and gas in its vicinity.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day