The Witch Head Nebula 🧙‍♀️

It sits next to bright Rigel in Orion. You can see a little bit of the star glow at top right.

Being a reflection nebula, this thing doesn’t glow in pink or blue like emission nebulae do. All you’re seeing is star light bouncing off “dust”. Which is this case is more
like smoke; very fine particles mixed in with the usual gas.

If you look carefully, you’ll see a scattering of background galaxies dotted around the image.

#astrophotography #space #astrodon

When is an Exoplanet not really a planet? When it's PSR J2322-2650b
It might be the remnant of the primary's much smaller companion, a red dwarf star with much of itself blasted away while it's primary was in it's violent giant and supernova phase.
Amazingly a nubbin of the Companion can survive all that and be classed as a 'planet' rather than a 'star', at least that's how I understand it from this article.

https://www.astronomy.com/science/jwst-discovers-a-strange-exoplanet-that-orbits-a-pulsar/

#Astrodon #PSRJ23222650b #Explanets #Space

#MPSGoettingen wishes you happy holidays and a healthy and successful New Year 2026!

Featuring prominently on our season's greetings card: the first images of the Sun's south pole 🛰️ ☀️

During its flyby of the Sun at the end of March this year, the Solar Orbiter space probe had its first clear view of our star's poles. Solar Orbiter's trajectory has recently been tilted 17 degrees relative to the Sun's equator, allowing measurements from this unique perspective for the first time. As the new observations impressively show, the magnetic field at the poles is currently in a state of turmoil.

In addition to the images of the sun's south pole taken by the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, the past year has brought us many other highlights: exciting scientific results and important awards. Read more at https://www.mps.mpg.de/en/season-s-greetings-2025

#2025 #wrapped #wrapped2025 #Jahresrückblick #SolarOrbiter #Sun #Space #SolAustralisIncognitus #2026 #NewYear #Goettingen #Astrodon

May your days be merry and bright  

📷 : https://esawebb.org/images/potm2512a/

#astronomy #astrophotography #space #science #astrodon #ESA #NASA #JWST #stars #HolidaySeason #Holiday