The Webb space telescope yesterday released this new close-up hi-res image of the iconic Horsehead Nebula taken by its NIRCam Camera.
The Nebula, 1,300 light years away, in the Orion constellation, was formed from a collapsing interstellar cloud of material and is illuminated by a nearby star. The region with the blue clouds contains cold, molecular hydrogen, not yet eroded by UV light from nearby stars. The red photodissociation region contains atomic hydrogen gas and dust, above which lies ionized gas. Astronomers estimate that the Horsehead has about five million years left before it too disintegrates. The image is about 0.8 light years across. As is usual in JWST images, a number of distant galaxies can be seen photobombing this image.
In case the image does not look like a horse’s head to the discerning eye, it is because the image captures the “mane” of the Horsehead Nebula. The 3 images below provide the larger context of the image.
Now let’s trot over to today’s puzzle composed in 1931 by noted Danish chess composer Karl Adolf Koefoed Larsen (1896 - 1963). Today’s puzzle features plenty of Horseheads all jockeying for position 🐴🐴🐴🐴.
P.S.
The chess puzzle is published on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. ET.
It is customary for advanced players to wait till midnight ET before posting the full solution. Before then, they provide some stats about the solution (e.g., the minimum number of distinct checkmate moves), help guide others, and sometimes post hints. But there are no hard-and-fast rules; feel free to post comments as you please.