Nasa reveals mesmerising Horsehead Nebula situated 1,300 light-years away from Earth in ‘unprecedented detail’

NASA has captured the famous Horsehead Nebula in its sharpest detail yet, 136 years after it was first discovered.

Images produced by Hubble, and Euclid before it, of the distinctive dust cloud have been succeeded in quality by the $10billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

5

5

Nasa and partners like the European Space Agency (ESA) have published jaw-dropping images of the Horsehead Nebula captured by Webb some 1300 light-years away.

The nebula, like most, was formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of gas and dust and is illuminated by a nearby hot star.

These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution.

European Space Agency

Astronomers reckon that the Horsehead – also known as Barnard 33 -has about five million years left before it disintegrates and fades into the cosmic background.

“These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution,” the European Space Agency said.

In the video above, earthlings can watch Webb’s journey towards the Horsehead Nebula.

The Horsehead dust cloud is a well-known photon-dominated region, also known as a PDR, and is an “ideal target” for study, according to the ESA.

Astronomers want to observe these regions to study their physical structures, and how their gas-and-dust-characteristics evolve.

“It is considered one of the best objects in the sky to study how radiation interacts with interstellar matter,” the agency says.

Webb is an international partnership between NASA, ESA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

After launching on Christmas Day in 2021, Webb – the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched to space – has snapped images of distant whirlpools and galaxies 200,000 lightyears away.

5

5