Horsehead: A Wider View
Composition and Processing:
Robert Gendler
Combined image data from the massive,
ground-based
VISTA telescope and the
Hubble Space
Telescope was used to create
this
wide perspective
of the interstellar landscape surrounding
the famous Horsehead Nebula.
Captured at near-infrared wavelengths, the region's dusty
molecular cloud sprawls across the scene that covers
an angle about
two-thirds the size of the Full Moon on the sky.
Left to right the frame spans just over 10 light-years
at the Horsehead's estimated distance of 1,600 light-years.
Also known as
Barnard 33,
the still
recognizable Horsehead Nebula
stands at the upper right,
the near-infrared glow of a dusty pillar topped with newborn stars.
Below and left, the bright reflection nebula NGC 2023 is itself
the illuminated environs of a hot young star.
Obscuring clouds
below the base of the Horsehead and on the outskirts of
NGC 2023 show the tell-tale far red emission of energetic jets,
known as Herbig-Haro objects,
also associated with newborn stars.