June 9, 2014 - A Horsehead of a Different Color
A Horsehead of a Different Color Rising from a sea of dust and gas like a giant seahorse, the Horsehead nebula is one of the most photographed objects in the sky. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took a close-up look at this heavenly icon, revealing the cloud’s intricate structure. Its unusual shape was first discovered on a photographic plate in the late 1800s. Unlike optical light images of the Horsehead Nebula, which appear dark and shadowy, Hubble’s infrared view is rich with detail and appears almost transparent against the backdrop of the Milky Way. The image was taken using the Wide Field Camera 3, which was installed on the observatory in 2009. Located about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Orion, the towering Horsehead nebula is a cocoon in which new stars are being born.
Image credit: NASA / NOAO / ESA / The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Weekly Calendar
June 9-15, 2014
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 9
1812: Johann Gottfried Galle born
Tuesday 10
Neptune appears stationary
Saturn 0.6° north of Moon
1985: Vega 1 deploys lander and balloon on Venus
2003: Mars rover Spirit launched
Wednesday 11
2008: Fermi Gamma-Ray Telescope launched
2013: Shenzhou 10 launched, China's fifth human spaceflight mission
Thursday 12
1967: Venera 4 launched
Friday 13
Full Moon 12:11 AM ET
1831: James Clerk Maxwell born
1974: National Space Society founded
1983: Pioneer 10 leaves solar system, begins traveling in interstellar space
2010: Hayabusa spacecraft returns first asteroid samples to Earth
2012: NuSTAR X-Ray telescope launched
Saturday 14
Flag Day
Moon at perigee
1967: Mariner 5 launched
1975: Venera 10 launched
1985: Vega 2 deploys lander and balloon on Venus
Sunday 15
Father's Day
Trinity Sunday
1971: First Titan III-D rocket launch
2010: Soyuz TMA-19 launched carrying ISS Expedition 24/25 crew