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Credit & Copyright: George Chatzifrantzis
Explanation:
Sculpted by stellar winds and radiation, this dusty interstellar
molecular cloud has by chance has assumed an immediately
recognizable shape.
Fittingly known as
The Horsehead Nebula,
it lies some 1,500 light-years distant,
embedded in the vast Orion cloud complex.
About five light-years "tall," the dark cloud is cataloged as Barnard 33,
first
identified
on a photographic plate taken in the late 19th century.
B33 is visible primarily because its obscuring dust
is silhouetted against the glow of emission nebula IC 434.
Hubble space telescope images
from the early 21st century
find young stars forming within B33.
Of course, the magnificent interstellar cloud will slowly shift its
apparent shape over the next few million years.
But for now the Horsehead Nebula is a rewarding
though difficult object to view with small
telescopes from planet Earth.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day