The Horsehead Nebula is a region of dense, opaque dust dramatically silhouetted by the brightly radiating hydrogen gas behind it. I thought it might be interesting to break from the usual (and sometimes unusual) color palettes that are possible using monochrome data and see what hydrogen alpha data alone could do to render it. I know BW images are not everyone's cup of tea, but for me this image accentuates the complex interactions between matter and energy in this part of the Orion Molecular Cloud. NASA published a visualization of the Horsehead (
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30679) compiled from Hubble and ground-based infrared data that is absolutely sublime. It revealed thousands of previously unseen stars whose visible light could not penetrate the dust, but nonetheless were detectable by their heat. I am sure many minds in the astronomical community will be thoroughly blown when the JWST brings the full power of its optics to bear on this target.
Comments