Magnificent 'Monkey Head' Nebula | Space Wallpaper

By Space.com Staff
published

Hubble Snaps 'Monkey Head' Nebula
To celebrate its 24th year in orbit, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has released this beautiful space wallpaper of part of NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

To celebrate its 24th year in orbit, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has released this beautiful space wallpaper of part of NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula. NGC 2174 lies about 6400 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Hubble previously viewed this part of the sky back in 2011 — the colourful region is filled with young stars embedded within bright wisps of cosmic gas and dust. This portion of the Monkey Head Nebula was imaged in the infrared using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. This image was released March 17, 2014. [Full Story]

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.