The Witch Head

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L.Rebull (SSC/Caltech)

This cos­mic witch is brew­ing up baby stars. The Witch Head Neb­ula is a reflec­tion neb­ula about 1,000 light-years from Earth. It reflects the light of the bright star Rigel in the con­stel­la­tion of Orion, the Hunter. The new stars show up as pink dots in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Tele­scope. Spitzer explores the uni­verse in infrared, show­ing sci­en­tists warm bod­ies in space, such as stars and even plan­ets. Explore the image and find the pink stars. Why do you think they are bunched together?

Witch Head Nebula

Most reflec­tion neb­ula get their color from nearby stars. The Witch Head Neb­ula, also known as IC 2118, reflects the light of Rigel, a hot, blue super­giant sun. But the neb­ula doesn’t glow blue because of the light of the star. Dust par­ti­cles in the neb­ula scat­ter blue light bet­ter than red light in the same process that causes Earth’s sky to appear blue. Astronomer Frank E. Ross named the neb­ula but it was astronomer Max Wolf who dis­cov­ered it nearly 100 years ago. Edwin Hub­ble, whom the Hub­ble Space Tele­scope is named, dis­cov­ered that Rigel was the source of the nebula’s illumination.