James Webb reveals "unprecedented" details of the Horsehead Nebula 1,300 light-years away

NASA has captured a picture of the famous Horsehead Nebula in the finest detail yet, 136 years after it was first discovered.

NASA reported on Monday that the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), aboard the James Webb Space Telescope, were able for the first time to capture the small-scale structures of the bright edge of the head of the nebula located 1,300 light-years from Earth. .

NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency have published stunning James Webb Telescope images (as a joint project between these space agencies) of the Horsehead Nebula, which arose from the collapse of an interstellar cloud of gas and dust and is illuminated by a hot, nearby star located on its upper left edge.

Astronomers believe that Horsehead, also known as Barnard 33, still has about five million years to go before it disintegrates and fades into the cosmic background.

“These observations show part of the iconic nebula in a completely new light, capturing its complexities with unprecedented spatial resolution,” the European Space Agency said.

Earthlings can watch the James Webb Telescope's journey towards the Horsehead Nebula in an amazing video clip.

The Horsehead dust cloud is a well-known photon-dominated region, also known as a photodissociation region (PDR), where ultraviolet light from young, massive stars heats up the fully ionized gas and dust surrounding massive stars and newly formed clouds, and is an "ideal target" for study. According to the European Space Agency.

Astronomers seek to monitor these regions to study their physical structure and how their gas and dust properties develop.

The European Space Agency says that the nebula "is one of the best objects in the sky for studying how radiation interacts with interstellar matter."