Hubble snaps a cosmic keyhole 1350 light-years from Earth

This picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 1999, a reflection nebula that lies around 1350 light-years from Earth, near the famous Orion Nebula, the closest region of massive star formation to Earth.

NGC 1999 was discovered some two centuries ago by Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline. The nebula is a relic of recent star formation, composed of detritus left over from the formation of a newborn star. As visible in this image, the most notable aspect of NGC 1999’s appearance is the conspicuous hole in its centre, which resembles an inky-black keyhole of cosmic proportions.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), reflection nebulae like NGC 1999 only shine because of the light from an embedded source. In the case of NGC 1999, this source is the aforementioned newborn star V380 Orionis which is visible at the centre.

This image was created from archival Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 observations that date from shortly after Hubble's Servicing Mission 3A in 1999, when astronomers believed that the dark patch in NGC 1999 was something called a Bok globule. The globule is a cold cloud of gas, molecules, and cosmic dust, which is so dense it blocks all of the light behind it. 

However, follow-up observations using a collection of telescopes including ESA's Herschel Space Observatory revealed that the dark patch is actually an empty region of space. The origin of this unexplained rift in the heart of NGC 1999 remains unknown.

📷 This NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space Telescope image shows NGC 1999, a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. It is a relic of recent star formation, composed of the debris left over from the formation of the newborn star V380 Orionis 👉 https://t.co/uVQz9zQ3yE pic.twitter.com/2Hb78HI52g

— ESA (@esa) October 24, 2022