The Horsehead Nebula in Infrared from Hubble

The dust cloud was sculpted by stellar winds and radiation while it was drifting through the universe. It's named the Horsehead Nebula because it's embedded in a large and complex constellation. A potentially rewarding but difficult object to view with a small telescope, the featured gorgeously detailed image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The dark cloud, which is roughly 1,500 light years away, is seen above because it is backlit by the nearby giant star. The Horsehead Nebula will be destroyed by high energy starlight after a few million years.

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Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way. About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus, NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier's famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy's disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. This Hubble Space Telescope close-up spans some 40,000 light-years. The galaxy's magnificent spiral arms feature dark obscuring dust lanes, bright bluish clusters of massive young stars, and the telltale reddish glow of active star forming regions. The bright yellowish central regions harbor populations of older, cooler stars. Like the Milky Way, a supermassive black hole lies at the core of spiral galaxy NGC 7331.