A new telescope image reveals a distant cosmic gas cloud that looks like a curious chicken with his head tilted in wonder of the universe.
The image, taken by the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, captures an emission nebula — a bright cloud of ionized gas that emits its own light — located about 6,500 light-years from Earth in the southern Centaurus constellation.
Formally, the nebula is known as IC 2872 or Gum 40; however, it is also playfully referred to as the Running Chicken Nebula, according to a statement from the ESO.
The wispy, billowing clouds of gas that make up nebulas can take on many shapes that appear different to viewers. One interpretation of IC 2872 is that it resembles the head of a chicken, seen in the lower right of the image with its head angled upward. A bright region of star formation appears to be a glowing beak, from which darker clouds extend like a pea comb to the top of the chicken’s head.
This nebula was first cataloged in 1888 by the Danish astronomer John Louis Emil Dreyer. His research led to the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (NGC), which was initially an index of 7,840 astronomical objects such as galaxies, star clusters and emission nebulas.
Dreyer later added two more Index Catalogues (IC), comprising 5,386 celestial objects. At that time, this nebula was referred to as IC 2872. This catalog is still used today, having been most recently updated in 2019 with an additional 13,957 new objects, according to the statement.
The moniker Gum 40 comes from the work of the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum. In 1955 he established the Gum catalog of 84 emission nebulas in the southern sky, including this one.
“As telescopes and instruments keep getting better, more and more deep-sky objects are discovered, so the lists and catalogues will never be complete,” ESO officials said in the statement releasing the new image on Dec. 9.
Emission nebulae like IC 2872 form when the intense radiation of stars within or near the nebula energizes the surrounding gas and causes it to glow in various colors based on the type of gas present. Stars are born in clouds of gas and dust, which is why nebulas are hotbeds for new star formation.
There are numerous young, bright blue stars scattered across this new VLT image, including one that appears to mark the chicken’s right eye.