The ghastly apparition photographed by NASA’s Hubble is a star-forming region about 168,000 light-years or 987,609,060,000,000,000 miles from Earth. Officially designated Nebula NGC 2080, astronomers have dubbed it the Ghost Head Nebula. At the centre of the stellar cloud of gas are two bright points of light resembling a pair of glowing eyes.
The Ghost Head Nebula is part of a larger chain of star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Astronomers are fascinated by this part of the cosmos thanks to the new stars it spawns.
The Ghost Head Nebula sits just south of the 30 Doradus or Tarantula Nebula.
According to NASA, 30 Doradus is the largest star-forming region within the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Milky Way.
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NASA shared a striking picture of the Ghost Head, just in time for the annual celebration of Halloween on October 31.
The US space agency said: “The light from the nebula captured in this image is emitted by two elements, hydrogen and oxygen.
“The red and the blue light are from regions of hydrogen gas heated by nearby stars.
“The green light on the left comes from glowing oxygen, energised by a powerful stellar wind – a stream of high-speed particles – coming from a massive star just outside the image.”
In the centre of the image, the two gases mix together and create a region where young, hot stars are formed.
The red and the blue light are from regions of hydrogen gas heated by nearby stars
NASA
Here you can see two distinct “blobs” glowing material known as the “Eyes of the Ghost”.
The blob on the left has been dubbed A1 and the blob on the right is A2.
NASA said: “The bubble in A1 is produced by the hot, intense radiation and powerful stellar wind from a single massive star.
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“A2 has a more complex appearance due to the presence of more dust, and it contains several hidden, massive stars.
“The massive stars in A1 and A2 must have formed within the last 10,000 years since their natal gas shrouds are not yet disrupted by the powerful radiation of the newly born stars.”
NASA’s colourful picture is a combination of three different images combined into a single portrait.
The images were snapped on March 28, 2000, by Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2.
Red colours represent ionised hydrogen, green represents ionised oxygen and blue is ionised hydrogen again.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is a joint operation with the European Space Agency (ESA).
The telescope was launched into orbit above Earth on April 24, 1990.
Hubble races around our planet at speeds of about 17,000mph just like the International Space Station (ISS).
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