The Galloping Chicken Nebula captured by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope. (European Southern Observatory)
Text/Reporter Chen Juncun
The European Southern Observatory captured an exceptionally clear image of the Galloping Chicken Nebula. Some people say that this nebula looks like a running chicken in space; others say that it is a cloud of gas that will form stars.
The European Southern Observatory recently released an image of the “Running Chicken Nebula” taken by the VLT Survey Telescope in Chile. This image has a resolution of 1.5 billion pixels, clearly showing the structure and details of the nebula.
The Chicken Nebula is located in the constellation Centauri, about 6,500 light-years away from Earth. It is also called the Lambda Centauri Nebula because it is located near the constellation’s star, Lambda Centauri (also known as Eta Carinae).
Many young stars formed inside the Galloping Nebula. These young stars emit intense radiation, causing the surrounding hydrogen gas to be ionized and glow pink.
The Galloping Chicken Nebula is actually made up of multiple regions, all of which can be seen in this huge image. This image spans the distance of approximately 25 full moons in the sky.
The brightest region of the nebula is known as IC 2948, and some people see a chicken’s head here, while others think it’s a chicken’s rump. The ethereal pink plumes are made of gas and dust.
There is a bright vertical structure in the center of the image, almost like a pillar, which is IC 2944. The brightest star in this special region is Lambda Centauri. It’s a star visible to the naked eye, much closer to Earth than the nebula itself.
However, IC 2948 and IC 2944 also contain many young stars that may also be bright. When they emit large amounts of radiation, they peck their surroundings into pieces like chickens.
Certain regions of the nebula, known as Bok globules, are protected from being bombarded by ultraviolet radiation. You may be able to see them if you zoom in on the image. They are small, dark, and dense patches of dust and gas that dot the nebula.
Image of the Galloping Chicken Nebula taken by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope. (European Southern Observatory)
Other areas in the image include Gum 39 and Gum 40 on the upper right, and Gum 41 on the lower right. Gum refers to the Gum catalog, which is the name of a catalog of 85 emission nebula objects in the southern sky, including 85 nebulae or nebula complexes. It was made by Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum.
In addition to the nebula, this image also features countless orange, white and blue stars, like fireworks in the sky. Taken as a whole, the wonders in the picture are too numerous to describe. If you slowly examine each area, you can enjoy a visual feast.
On an astronomical scale, the lifespan of the gas in the Galloping Nebula is not very long, usually only a few million years. This means that these clouds will gradually drain away, and the radiation emitted by the star will gradually weaken and gradually become unable to make the clouds shine. By then, the chicken will no longer exist. ◇
