Horsehead Nebula

dark nebula · Barnard 33 · in Orion

1,375 light-years from Earth

A pillar of cold, dusty gas that happens to look like a horse's head, silhouetted against glowing hydrogen lit by the star sigma Orionis.

• 1,375 light-years · the head is about 3.5 light-years tall
• it is slowly being eroded and will be gone in ~5 million years

kind

nebula

catalogue

IC 434 · NGC 2023