Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula
Image Credit: Mohammad Heydari-Malayeri (Observatoire de Paris) et al., ESA, NASA
Explanation: Halloween's origin is ancient and astronomical. Since the fifth century BC,
Halloween has been celebrated as a
cross-quarter day, a day halfway between an
equinox (equal day / equal night) and a
solstice (minimum day / maximum night in the northern hemisphere). With a
modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs tomorrow, the real
cross-quarter day will occur
next week. Another cross-quarter day is
Groundhog Day. Halloween's modern celebration retains
historic roots in dressing to scare away the spirits of the dead. Perhaps a fitting tribute to this ancient holiday is this view of the
Ghost Head Nebula taken with the
Hubble Space Telescope. Similar to the icon of a
fictional ghost, NGC 2080 is actually a
star forming region in the
Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of our own
Milky Way Galaxy. The Ghost Head Nebula spans about 50
light-years and is shown in representative colors.
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