In the far corners of the sky, the Horsehead Nebula lies in the bosom of Orion. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope captures an infrared portrait of this celestial object with unprecedented clarity, allowing its eternal brilliance to reach our reality through time and space, presenting its majestic and magnificent face, which is incredibly beautiful.
The Matou Nebula, about 1,300 light-years from Earth, is like an island in the universe, lying quietly in the sea of stars. It is shaped like a horse, composed of a blue-gray cloud of cold molecular hydrogen and red atomic hydrogen gas above, like a vast poem painted by starlight.
In the surging cosmic torrent, these gases and dusts shone brightly, like bubbles rising from the Milky Way, gently lapping the shores of the sky.
See, in its glorious crown of stars, scattered distant galaxies and bright stars, make for a beautiful picture that touches the heartstrings. See, a star with an astonishing light and an 8-point diffraction spike, like a beacon in the night sky, guides us in the direction of exploration.
The Horsehead Nebula is not just a static celestial body, it is also a dynamic chemistry laboratory.
Here, ultraviolet light shines down from young, massive stars, and interacts with interstellar matter to form regions of photodissociation, revealing a cosmic epic of the evolution of gas and dust molecules.
Astronomers, with the help of Webb's precision instruments, revealed for the first time the subtle structure of the nebula's luminous edges, witnessing a spectacular scene of dust being heated by gas and swept out of the clouds, with the entire image (third image) about 0.8 light-years wide.
Every wisp of gas and every particle of dust in the Matou Nebula is excited by ultraviolet rays to tell the story of the universe.
The interweaving of cold air currents and hot gases weaves astronomical wonders, reflecting the eternal cycle of birth and death.
The cosmic dust that is heated and stirred up will eventually form new stars or return to nothingness.
Under the lens of the Webb telescope, the Matou Nebula is not only an interstellar cloud, but also a bridge between us and the universe, leading us to search for the mystery of the universe and the meaning of life in the vast sea of stars. The Horsehead Nebula, the treasure of Orion, the endless mystery, the infinite charm, how not to make people's thoughts stir and be confused?
(The first is from the Euclid telescope, the second is from the Hubble telescope, and three or four are from the Webb telescope)