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Horsehead Nebula (B33) , Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) and Friends
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This image covers a 60 arc minute by 40 arc minute section of the sky around the bright star Alnitak in Orions' Belt. This is less than one square degree, and a very busy section of representing roughly one hundred thousandth of the visible sky.
On the right is the dark nebula B33, known as the Horsehead nebula. It is silhouetted against the IC434 nebula. This is a cloud of hydrogen gas which glows with characteristic deep red color.
On the left is the emission nebula NGC2024 known as the Flame or Christmas Tree nebula. This is composed of hydrogen and other gases, giving a very unusual orange color.
The bright star Alnitak is seen at the upper center. This star glows strongly in both visible and ultraviolet light. The visible light is much more intense than the surrounding nebulae and this leads to the halo around the star, as well as the triangle-shaped artifact starting at Alnitak that gets wider as it approaches the bottom of the image.
The ultraviolet light cannot be seen directly in this image, but it is this light that causes both IC434 and the Flame Nebula to glow.
Finally at the lower center is the nebula designated NGC2023, illuminated by the star SAO132464. The star is surrounded by dust which glows with gray-blue color often associated with reflection nebula, but there also appears to be some emission adding a pink color on the lower left part.
**** Click on the image above to see a large version of the image (50% of full resolution) ****
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