NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured
the sharpest infrared view of the Horsehead Nebula,
located within the constellation Orion,
nearly 1,300 light-years away.
Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument and Near-Infrared Camera
were pointed towards the illuminated edge
of this iconic nebula, capturing the region’s complexity
with unprecedented spatial resolution.
As with many Webb images,
distant galaxies are sprinkled in the background.
The ethereal clouds that appear blue at the bottom
of the image are dominated by cold, molecular hydrogen.
Red-colored wisps extending above the main nebula
represent mainly atomic hydrogen gas.
This nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material,
and it glows because it’s illuminated by a nearby hot star.
The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated,
and astronomers estimate that the Horsehead itself has about
five million years before it also disintegrates.
As ultraviolet light evaporates the dust cloud,
dust particles are swept out away from the cloud,
carried with the heated gas.
Webb has detected a network of thin features tracing this movement.
Using Webb to observe the small-scale structures
at the nebula’s edge that have
never been observed before allows astronomers
to investigate how the dust blocks and emits light,
and to better understand the multidimensional shape of the nebula.