13 Jun 2026
The "Cosmic Keyhole" refers to NGC 1999, a reflection nebula located approximately 1,350 light-years away in the Orion constellation. Named for the mysterious, inky-black hole at its center, the void was originally thought to be a dense cloud of dust (a Bok globule) blocking background starlight.Follow-up observations with telescopes like the Herschel Space Observatory revealed it is not an object blocking light at all. Instead, it is a literal hole or cavity in space, believed to have been carved out by intense energetic jets of plasma expelled by a nearby newborn star
NGC 1999
20 credit
Filter | Avg Exp (s) | Total Exposure | Subframes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luminance | 3429 | 20h | 21 |
| Red | 2571 | 15h | 21 |
| Green | 2700 | 15h | 20 |
| Blue | 2700 | 15h | 20 |
| Halpha | 3600 | 20h | 20 |