I was looking at a photo of the Horsehead Nebula and the scale finally clicked for me

I was reading an article on the NASA site last night about the Hubble's 2013 image. It said the dark part of the nebula, the 'head' itself, is about 3.5 light-years tall. I mean, I knew these things were big, but that's like 20 trillion miles just for that one dark cloud. It's hard to even picture that in a single frame. Does looking at the actual numbers change how anyone else sees these deep space photos?

3 comments

3 Comments

robinson.hannah1mo ago

Twenty trillion miles just for the shadow.

terry6771mo ago

Yeah, seeing "3.5 light-years tall" finally makes that impossible scale feel a bit more real, doesn't it?

gibson.sarah19d ago

Honestly, just wild to think about how that whole shadow is basically nothing compared to the thing itself, right @robinson.hannah?