Halloween and the Ghost Head Nebula

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

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 and a solstice.

With a modern calendar however, even though Halloween occurs next week, the real cross-quarter day will occur the week after.

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.