As Christmas draws fast and we get closer, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has brought us a special holiday gift – a breathtaking view of space**. The protagonist is a turkey-shaped star-forming region that seems to be running away from a cosmic Christmas dinner.
Photographed by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, this stunning** image shows the gas and dust clouds that give birth to stars in Nebula IC 2944. This nebula6,500 light years awayThat is to say, it takes a long time for the light we see to enter our eyes, and it takes a long time for us to see these colors.
At first glance, IC 2944 has a distinctly avian appearance, which has given astronomers the nickname:Running turkey nebula。**Covers about 25 areas of the sky the size of a full moon with up to 1.5 billion original pixels and meticulous detail. **Shows the nebula's delicate wisps of gas and dust glowing red, pink, and orange, with some bright blue stars dotted within, like the lights on a Christmas tree.
The "Running Turkey Nebula" is about 71 light-years wide and is located in the direction of the constellation Centauri. It contains several separate areas, which can be seen in the ** of this sheet. The brightest area is located in the tail of this cosmic bird and is known as IC 2948. This area is filled with bright gas and dust "feathers" and dotted with blue blazing young stars.
Running Turkey Nebula" in the position of Centauri (circled in red).
These stars are also scattered in other parts of the nebula. They shape the appearance of cosmic turkeys by emitting large amounts of ultraviolet radiation. These ultraviolet rays disperse gas and dust, which inhibits further star formation. But there are areas in the nebula that are resisting this high-energy radiation, and they are dark, dense clouds of gas and dust around the nebula.
In the middle of this space turkey, there is also a bright, vertical columnar structure called IC 2944, which looks like a swinging chicken wing. At the top of IC 2944, there is a twinkling star called Lambda Centauri, which is closer to Earth than the running chicken nebula, only 470 light-years away. The star is also very bright and can be seen from Earth with the naked eye.
* In the upper right corner, there are also two emitting nebulae, super-hot regions of ionized gas, called gum 39 and gum 40, which make up the head of the running chicken. Another launch nebula, called Gum 41, can be seen in the lower right corner of **, forming the feet of this space turkey.
* Some of the white and blue stars are scattered around it, like falling snowflakes, and they, like snowflakes, each one is very unique and complex.
Overall, this ** is like a beautiful Christmas card, which makes us feel the warmth and joy of the holiday while enjoying the beauty of the universe. Let's enjoy this Christmas gift from the European Southern Observatory!