"Running Chicken Nebula🌌 in Amazing 1.5-Billion-Pixel Detail!" 🛰🔭🌌
Instead of the usual festive stuff this holiday season, treat yourself to a fantastic celestial display! The Running Chicken Nebula, home to young stars, has been revealed in stunning detail with a massive 1.5-billion-pixel image from the European Southern Observatory (ESO). The VLT Survey Telescope (VST) captured the fantastic picture at the ESO's Paranal site in Chile. Located in the Centaurus constellation , about 6,500 light-years away, the Running Chicken Nebula shines in bright pink, thanks to the intense radiation from its young stars. The gigantic image covers a space in the sky equal to about 25 full moons and highlights various areas, with IC 2948 being the brightest. Some people even see a chicken's head or rear end in this region, while wispy gas and dust add a magical touch to the cosmic scenery. Looking closely at the image, you'll spot IC 2944 with its bright pillar-like structure and Lambda Centauri , a star we can see with the naked eye, closer to us than...