The Monkey Head Nebula | Hubble

The Monkey Head Nebula | Hubble

To celebrate its 24th year in orbit, the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope released this beautiful new image of part of NGC 2174, also known as the Monkey Head Nebula.

NGC 2174 lies about 6,400 light-years away in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter). Hubble previously viewed this part of the sky back in 2011—the colorful 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.

Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Release Date: March 17, 2014

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