The James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest and most detailed image yet of the Horsehead Nebula using its MIRI and NIRCam instruments. This nebula, also known as Barnard 33, is located roughly 1300 light-years away in the constellation Orion.
Horsehead Nebula essentially formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds enveloping the nebula have already dissipated, but the bulbous pillar consists of thick clumps of material that is harder to erode. Astronomers believe that tHorsehead only has around five million years left before it too disintegrates. Webb’s new image focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of Horsehead’s distinctive dust and gas structure.
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Next, astronomers intend to study the spectroscopic data that have been obtained of the nebula to evidence the evolution of the physical and chemical properties of the material observed across the nebula,” said the ESA.
