James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

Horsehead Nebula (MIRI)

The Horsehead Nebula is famously known for…looking like a horse’s head. But there is more to this cloud of dust and gas than meets the eye. Webb captured the top of the "horse's mane," giving us the sharpest infrared images of the region to date: go.nasa.gov/4d7L1xI The ultraviolet radiation from young massive stars is what influences the chemistry within the nebula - this region is considered one of the best for studying how radiation from stars interacts with interstellar matter. In the mid-infrared, Webb captures the glow of substances like dusty silicates and soot-like molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. [Image Description: The image is more than half-filled from the bottom up by a small section of the Horsehead Nebula. Streaky clouds of white, gray and blue resemble a foamy wave crashing at the seashore. The nebula stops at a textured, fuzzy-looking edge that follows a slight curve. Above it a small number of distant stars and galaxies lie on a dark but multicolored background.] Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Karl Misselt (University of Arizona), Alain Abergel (AIM Paris-Saclay) Image & Description by NASA