A "strawberry cocktail" nebula called IC 2944 has just been photographed like never before to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Very Large Telescope (VLT).
This star-forming region 6,500 light years from Earth and is located in the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). It is commonly known as the Running Chicken Nebula. The new picture, released May 23, is the sharpest and most-detailed image every taken of the stellar nursery.
Researchers from 15 countries at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) manage the facility that took the photograph.
The ESO researchers explain the features seen in the photograph by writing, "These opaque blobs resemble drops of ink floating in a strawberry cocktail, their whimsical shapes sculpted by powerful radiation coming from the nearby brilliant young stars."
The region of sky around IC 2944 is full of such star-forming regions, and astronomers commonly study the area in order to learn more about the birth of stars. It received its comical name when some astronomers decided that the formation resembles a running chicken. Even more amusing, astronomers who believe they see a chicken in its gaseous shape can not agree on which part of the ebula looks like such an animal.
"Emission nebulae like IC 2944 are composed mostly of hydrogen gas that glows in a distinctive shade of red, due to the intense radiation from the many brilliant newborn stars," ESO officials said in a press release announcing the new photograph. "Clearly revealed against this bright backdrop are mysterious dark clots of opaque dust, cold clouds known as Bok globules."
These globules are being torn apart by the pressure of ultraviolet radiation from the young stars in the formation. Although such structures often form new stars, the ones present in this photo are not expected to form new stars before they are destroyed. These types of structures were named after the Dutch-American astronomer Bart Bok. It was he who first popularized the idea that such formations were places where stars are being born.
The Very Large Telescope is located in Chile's Atacama desert and is managed by the ESO. The network is a collection of eight telescopes that combine their images to create more detailed images than any single ground-based telescope could provide. The facility opened May 25, 1998.
