Skip to Content
Subscribe
Log In
Menu
Search
Search
Crosswords
NFL
NBA
NHL
WNBA
Soccer
Podcasts
Arts And Culture
Politics
Science
About Us
Send Us A Tip (News)
Send Us A Tip ($)
Merch Shop
How To Pitch Defector
How To Comment On Defector
Defector Freelancer Policies, Created In Partnership With The National Writers Union
Crossword Submission Guidelines
Masthead
Defector Hall of Fame
Log In
Subscribe
Defector X (formerly Twitter)
Defector Twitch
Defector Bluesky
Science
Topics
NFL
NBA
NHL
Soccer
Arts And Culture
Capital
Podcasts
Creaturefector
Chefector
Science
Do Not Accept An Unscientific American
350
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
November 20, 2024
Science
This Week In Skeletons
54
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
November 7, 2024
Enter Our Raffle To Win A Visit And Home-Cooked Meal From Drew Magary
In 2022, we sent Cardboard Roth and actual Roth to our raffle winner's home. This year, we're sending Drew over, and he's cooking up a feast. Anyone who makes a contribution of at least $20 into our tip jar by Nov. 24 will be entered into the raffle.
Climate
What Can We Learn From Back-To-Back Monster Hurricanes Helene And Milton?
155
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
October 17, 2024
Science
Let’s Go See What’s Swimming Around On Europa
142
Comments
Barry Petchesky
October 15, 2024
Science
It’s Totally Cool That I Didn’t Get To See The Northern Lights. Seriously! I Promise!!
114
Comments
Rachelle Hampton
October 11, 2024
MLB
Tropicana Field Shredded By Hurricane Milton
247
Comments
Barry Petchesky
October 10, 2024
Animals
Bear Wins Fat Bear Week By Defeating Bear That Killed Her Cub
75
Comments
Barry Petchesky
October 9, 2024
Science
What Is The Human Composting Industry Trying To Grow?
150
Comments
Nicholas Russell
September 13, 2024
Science
Neither Elon Musk Nor Anybody Else Will Ever Colonize Mars
566
Comments
Albert Burneko
September 11, 2024
Science
No Need To Worry About Eerie, Mysterious “Pulsing” Noise Coming From Janky Boeing Starliner, NASA Insists
257
Comments
Barry Petchesky
September 3, 2024
Science
Boeing Starliner Astronauts Electively Spending Five More Months In Space To Hitch Ride In Different Vehicle Due To Preference For Not Dying
203
Comments
Albert Burneko
August 26, 2024
Science
Extremely Heavy And Incredibly Far; Or, The Saga Of The Strangest Rock At Stonehenge
129
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
August 22, 2024
Science
Point/Counterpoint: Monkeys Typing Shakespeare
203
Comments
Kathryn Xu
and
Barry Petchesky
August 8, 2024
This Is So Stupid
Do Not Say The Boeing Starliner Astronauts Are Stranded In Space, Which They Cannot Presently Return From Due To Problems With Their Spacecraft
203
Comments
Albert Burneko
August 1, 2024
Science
Don’t Bury Me At Biscuit Basin
101
Comments
Barry Petchesky
July 24, 2024
Wings Week
You Motherfuckers Forgot About Dayton
385
Comments
Amy Schneider
July 19, 2024
Science
NASA Must Put Me On The Simulated Mars Mission, To Test The Astronauts’ Patience
100
Comments
Barry Petchesky
July 7, 2024
Science
What If We’re Stuck Down Here?
205
Comments
Barry Petchesky
June 18, 2024
Science
Bill Anders First Saw The Earth
88
Comments
Barry Petchesky
June 9, 2024
Science
Can We Exhume Gender From The Long-Dead?
77
Comments
Sabrina Imbler
May 9, 2024
Science
Suddenly Every Deodorant Company Wants To Get In My Pants
232
Comments
Drew Magary
April 30, 2024
Science
The Closer We Look The Smaller We Get
110
Comments
Barry Petchesky
April 30, 2024
Sports Highlight Of The Day
The Sports Highlight Of The Day Is The First Honeybee Ever To Pull A String
43
Comments
Barry Petchesky
April 7, 2024
This Is So Stupid
Defector Status Report: East Coast Earthquake
318
Comments
Defector Staff
April 5, 2024
NFL
What Time Will Football Start On The Moon?
116
Comments
Ray Ratto
April 3, 2024
Older
![The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula. These observations show a part of the iconic nebula in a whole new light, capturing its complexity with unprecedented spatial resolution. Webb’s new images show part of the sky in the constellation Orion (The Hunter), in the western side of the Orion B molecular cloud. Rising from turbulent waves of dust and gas is the Horsehead Nebula, otherwise known as Barnard 33, which resides roughly 1300 light-years away. The nebula formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material, and glows because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. The gas clouds surrounding the Horsehead have already dissipated, but the jutting pillar is made of thick clumps of material that is harder to erode. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. Webb’s new view focuses on the illuminated edge of the top of the nebula’s distinctive dust and gas structure. The Horsehead Nebula is a well-known photon-dominated region, or PDR. In such a region ultraviolet light from young, massive stars creates a mostly neutral, warm area of gas and dust between the fully ionised gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds in which they are born. This ultraviolet radiation strongly influences the gas chemistry of these regions and acts as the most important source of heat. These regions occur where interstellar gas is dense enough to remain neutral, but not dense enough to prevent the penetration of far-ultraviolet light from massive stars. The light emitted from such PDRs provides a unique tool to study the physical and chemical processes that drive the evolution of interstellar matter in our galaxy, and throughout the Universe from the early era of vigorous star formation to the present day. Owing to its proximity and its nearly edge-on geometry, the Horsehead Nebula is an ideal target for astronomers to study the physical structures of PDRs and the evolution of the chemical characteristics of the gas and dust within their respective environments, and the transition regions between them. It is considered one of the best objects in the sky to study how radiation interacts with interstellar matter. This image was captured with Webb’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) instrument. [Image description: At the bottom of the image a small portion of the Horsehead Nebula is seen close-in, as a curved wall of thick, smoky gas and dust. Above the nebula various distant stars and galaxies can be seen up to the top of the image. One star is very bright and large, with six long diffraction spikes that cross the image. The background fades from a dark red colour above the nebula to black.]](https://lede-admin.defector.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/28/2024/04/STScI-01HV4CG0EACM1MC07E10X19KNX.jpg?resize=2880%2C1920)
