Sector Dossier: The Horsehead NebulaCopy Anchor Link

"'We're in the Horsehead Nebula. One whole vast dark cloud.' 'And I was meant to recognize that from a blank screen?' 'Inside a dark nebula is the only place in the Galaxy you'd see a dark screen.' 'Very good.'"

— Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Chapter 14

The Horsehead Nebula is a colossal, opaque interstellar dust and gas cloud located in Galactic Quadrant 3. Cloaked in perpetual cosmic gloom and thick ionic fog, it is best known in galactic history as the hidden celestial shroud concealing the ancient, legendary custom-world manufacturing facilities of Magrathea and its binary suns, Soulianis and Rahm.

The Heart of Gold's Intended DestinationCopy Anchor Link

When Zaphod Beeblebrox and Trillian escaped from Damogran after stealing the Heart of Gold:

• The Flight Plan: Zaphod programmed the ship's initial flight trajectory to zap straight into the heart of the Horsehead Nebula to seek out the fabled lost world of Magrathea.
• The Improbability Deviation: Instead of arriving in the nebula, the Infinite Improbability Drive passed through every point in the universe simultaneously and materialized the ship in the middle of nowhere: Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, directly at the coordinates where Earth had existed moments before, perfectly timed to pick up Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent from open space.

Arrival on Conventional Photon DriveCopy Anchor Link

Following the restoration of normal physics, the Heart of Gold navigated into the depths of the nebula under conventional photon drive:

• The Blank Screen Paradox: When Zaphod lowered the bridge lights and activated the forward monitors to test Ford Prefect, the screens displayed absolute, pitch-black nothingness. As Zaphod pointed out, inside an ultra-dense dark nebula is the only place in the entire Galaxy where an external monitor shows total darkness, with no background stars visible through the cosmic dust.
• The 180-Degree Reveal: Ordering Eddie to rotate external vision through 180 degrees, the crew observed the binary red suns Soulianis and Rahm and the glowing red crescent night-side of Magrathea sliding into orbit.