Pass the cranberry sauce! A distant star-forming nebula looks like a turkey fleeing a cosmic Christmas dinner in a brand new telescope image.
The festive photo, taken by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, features the star-hatching clouds of gas and mud that comprise the nebula IC 2944, positioned around 6,500 light-years from Earth. IC 2944 has a distinctly fowl-like appearance, so astronomers have nicknamed it the “Running Chicken Nebula.”
Within the stunning latest 1.5-billion-pixel VLT image, the wispy gas and mud tendrils of the nebula glow in red, pink and orange, punctuated by vivid blue stars like lights shining on a Christmas tree.
The Running Chicken Nebula is about 71 light-years wide and lies toward the constellation of Centaurus. It comprises several separate regions, all of that are present in the brand new image , which covers a patch of the sky as wide as 25 full moons. The brightest region, which appears because the rear of this cosmic fowl, is often known as IC 2948. This area is filled with vivid gas and mud “plumage” and punctuated with vivid blue light from hot young stars.
These stars, that are spread through the remaining of the nebula as well, are carving this cosmic chicken by emitting vast amounts of ultraviolet radiation, which disperses gas and mud and thus helps to curtail further star formation. But some regions of the Running Chicken — known (no joke!) as Bok globules — are resisting this high-energy radiation and may be seen as dark, dense pockets of gas and mud sprinkled across the nebula.
Further up the celestial chicken is a vivid, vertical pillar-like structure called IC 2944, which appears almost like a chicken wing within the technique of flapping. Atop IC 2944 is the twinkling star Lambda Centauri, which is closer to Earth than the Running Chicken Nebula at just 470 light-years away. The star is so vivid that it’s visible from Earth with the naked eye.
Within the upper right of the image, two emission nebulas — regions of super-hot ionized gas — called Gum 39 and Gum 40 make up the top of the Running Chicken. An extra emission nebula, Gum 41, may be seen to the lower right of the image, forming the foot of the cosmic chicken.
Completing the brand new image is a sprinkling of white and blue stars that resemble falling flakes of snow, each as unique, individual and sophisticated as an actual snowflake.