New images taken by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope show the sharpest images ever of part of a horse-shaped nebula discovered more than a century ago.
A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in space visible in the night sky as a distinct bright spot or dark silhouette against other luminous material – and this one bears an uncanny resemblance to a horse raising its head.
The so-called Horsehead Nebula – in the constellation Orion – lies 1,300 light years or almost 6 trillion kilometers from Earth and shows the “mane” of this astonishing formation lit by a nearby hot star.
Webb, the most powerful space observatory ever built, is capable of detecting infrared light at unprecedented resolutions, revealing objects that cannot be seen using the visible spectrum of optical telescopes.
“As ultraviolet light evaporates the dust cloud, the particles are swept away by the flow of heated gas,” NASA revealed in a statement accompanying the images that show the process in great detail.
It is hoped that these images will help refine astronomers’ understanding of the nebula, which has become a favored target of space observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Horsehead Nebula is the ideal target for astronomers wishing to study the physical structures of formations known as photodissociation regions (PDRs).
“(The images also reveal) the molecular evolution of gas and dust in their respective environments, as well as the transition regions between them,” NASA said in a statement.
“It is considered one of the best regions of the sky for studying how radiation interacts with interstellar matter. »
The new images also allowed astronomers to study how dust blocks and emits light, as well as understand the nebula’s multidimensional shape.
Last year, the nebula was captured by Euclid as part of a group of five stunning new space images.
The one-of-a-kind photos were released by the European Space Agency, which launched the groundbreaking technology to the Last Frontier from Cape Canaveral in Florida last July.
Euclid’s task is to observe and then help the consortium create a revolutionary 3D map that would “uncover some of the hidden secrets (of the universe),” according to the organization.
New York Post
