The Colorful Horsehead Nebula . ... Credit Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT), Hawaiian Starlight , CFHT . Explanation: While drifting through the cosmos, a magnificent interstellar dust cloud became sculpted by stellar winds and radiation to assume a recognizable shape. ... The dark molecular cloud , roughly 1,500 light years distant, is cataloged as Barnard 33 and is visible only because its obscuring dust is silhouetted against the bright emission nebula IC 434. ...