New images taken by NASA’s Webb Space Telescope show the sharpest images yet of a portion of a horse-shaped nebula which was discovered more than a century ago.
A nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in outer space visible in the night sky either as a distinct bright patch or dark silhouette against other luminous matter — and this one has an astonishing likeness to a horse rearing its head.
The so-called Horsehead Nebula — in the constellation Orion — is 1,300 light years or nearly 6 trillion miles away from earth and shows the “mane” of the stunning formation in greater detail illuminated by a nearby hot star.
Webb, the most powerful space observatory ever built, is able to detect infrared light at unprecedented resolutions, revealing objects that cannot be seen using the visible spectrum in optical telescopes.
“As ultraviolet light evaporates the dust cloud, particles are swept away by the outflow of heated gas,” NASA revealed in a statement alongside the images which show the process in pristine detail.
