This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way,
This image may not be used by or to promote the arms, nuclear power or tobacco industries or any religious organisation, or in any discriminatory way, or to imply the endorsement by ESO of any product, service or activity IC 2944 nebula. Optical image of the spectacular stellar nursery IC 2944. This image also shows a group of thick clouds of dust known as the Thackeray globules silhouetted against the pale pink glowing gas of the nebula. These globules are under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. They are both being eroded away and also fragmenting, rather like lumps of butter dropped onto a hot frying pan. It is likely that Thackeray's globules will be destroyed before they can collapse and form new stars. Imaged by the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory, Chile. This image was released to celebrate 15 years of the VLT.
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Photo credit: © EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -, 2944, astronomical, astronomy, astrophysical, astrophysics, cloud, clouds, dust, embryonic, gas, globule, globules, hot, ic, image, large, nebula, nebulae, nursery, observatory, paranal, radiation, region, space, star, starbirth, starry, stars, stellar, telescope, thackeray, ultraviolet, universe, uv, vlt, young
