The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33) is a dark nebula located in the constellation Orion just south of the star Alnitak. The nebula was discovered in 1888 by Scottish astronomer William Fleming on a photographic plate at the Harvard College Observatory. The nebula is approximately 1,500 light years away from the Earth and spans several light years. The red/pinkish glow originates from hydrogen gas behind the nebula that is ionized by the nearby star Sigma Orionis.
This imagery is a composite of photographs taken with the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the European Southern Observatory’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy.
Source: https://youtu.be/-PQpNb_yJVE
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