In the constellation of Orion, a dark cloud of dust and gas rises in front of a glowing red background, in the shape of a horse's head. It is around 1,300 light-years away and several light-years tall.

The dark shape blocks the light behind it. The red glow is hydrogen gas, energised by nearby hot stars. Slowly, that radiation is eroding the horsehead away, but new stars may be forming inside it.

This image comes from a telescope belonging to SPECULOOS, a project at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile. Its telescopes usually hunt for planets around small, cool stars — but sometimes they turn to something simply beautiful.