NASA’s Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) captured this eerie image of the Witch Head Nebula, classified as IC 2118. It’s located approximately 900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus.
The billowy clouds that you see are actually star forming factories. These clouds are observable due to massive stars lighting them up, while dust in the cloud is being hit with starlight, causing it to glow with infrared light, which was picked up by WISE’s detectors. Speaking of witches, this nebula would go perfectly with the LEGO Haunted Mansion gaming PC from a few years back.
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WISE launched to near-Earth orbit on Dec. 14, 2009, and surveyed the full sky in four infrared wavelength bands until the frozen hydrogen cooling the telescope was depleted in September 2010. The spacecraft was placed into hibernation in February 2011, having completed its primary astrophysics mission,” said Monika Luabeya, NASA Web Editor.
