NASA said cameras aboard the James Webb Space Telescope have captured small structures for the first time on the illuminated edge of the Horsehead Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth in the constellation Orion.
This astronomical object, also known as Barnard 33, is part of the Orion molecular cloud complex. The new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), on the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud.
According to Space.com, this nebula, born from the collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust, is illuminated by a hot star on the upper left edge. The characteristic structure straddling the nebula would have formed from the erosion of the surrounding, lighter gas.
According to NASA, the horse’s mane area is a photodissociation region (PDR), as ultraviolet light from young, massive stars heats the fully ionized gas and dust surrounding the massive stars and newly forming clouds.
01 May 2024
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