Apr 13
Blue Horsehead IC 4592 ©
seen from China
seen from Spain
seen from Indonesia
seen from Kenya
seen from Ireland
seen from T1
seen from United States
seen from Iraq
seen from Malaysia
seen from Tunisia
seen from Argentina
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Brazil
seen from Netherlands
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Israel
seen from Vietnam
Blue Horsehead IC 4592 ©
The Blue Horsehead Nebula, IC 4592 // Michael Smithers
IC 4592 The blue horsehead nebula.
IC 4592
From Astronomy Picture of the Day; April 23, 2018:
The Blue Horsehead Nebula in Infrared WISE, IRSA, NASA; Processing & Copyright: Francesco Antonucci
The Blue Horsehead Nebula looks quite different in infrared light. In visible light, the reflecting dust of the nebula appears blue and shaped like a horse's head. In infrared light, however, a complex labyrinth of filaments, caverns, and cocoons of glowing dust and gas emerges, making it hard to even identify the equine icon. The featured image of the nebula was created in three infrared colors (R=22, G=12, B=4.6 microns) from data taken by NASA's orbiting Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft. The nebula is cataloged as IC 4592 and spans about 40 light years, lying about 400 light years away toward the constellation Scorpius along the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy. IC 4592 is fainter but covers an angularly greater region than the better known Horsehead Nebula of Orion. The star that predominantly illuminates and heats the dust is Nu Scorpii, visible as the reddened star left of center.
The Blue Horsehead Nebula, IC 4592 // Dominic Gareau
The ρ Ophiuchi Cloud Complex (right) and the Blue Horsehead Nebula (left) // Pato Tello
The Blue Horsehead Nebula, IC 4592 // Hannes Dürrwald
The star that marks the “eye” of the horse is Jabbah (ν Scorpii), a septuple star system about 470 light years away from Earth. Its name comes from the Arabic phrase Iklīl al Jabhah meaning “the crown of the forehead.”