Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have released an image of a huge cloud of gas and dust shaped like a bat with outstretched wings flying through space. This unique image was obtained by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in the Atacama Desert.
The unusual nebula is located approximately 10,000 light-years from Earth, between the southern constellations Circinus and Norma. It covers an area of the sky equal to four full moons and seems to "catch" the bright light of the star above.
This region is a star factory where new stars are born. Young stars emit energy that causes the surrounding hydrogen atoms to glow bright red. The dark filaments that make up the "skeleton" of the cosmic bat are made up of denser, cooler clouds of dust and gas that block the visible light behind them.
The brightest parts of this nebula are known as RCW 94 (the bat's right "paw") and RCW 95 (its "body"). The remaining parts do not yet have official names.
The photo was taken with the wide field of view of the VST telescope belonging to the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics. It is equipped with a state-of-the-art 268-megapixel OmegaCAM camera, which creates detailed images of vast swathes of the sky.
Translation by Euromedia24.com
