Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have produced this beautiful image of the gas cloud Gum 46.
This VLT image shows Gum 46, a nebula located 5,500 light-years away in the constellation of Crux. Image credit: ESO.
Gum 46 lies approximately 5,500 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Crux.
At the heart of this nebula there’s a young, hot and blue star called HD 311999.
“HD 311999’s intense radiation excites atoms in the surrounding gas, which then re-emit this energy at very specific colours or wavelengths,” ESO astronomers said.
“The pink shade that dominates this image is due to hydrogen atoms, the most abundant element in this nebula and the Universe as a whole.”
“The dark wispy clouds that surround the nebula make for a stunning sight too.”
“These clouds are not intrinsically dark: they are extremely dense regions of dust that block light passing through them, enshrouding the glowing heart of Gum 46.”
This image of Gum 46 was taken with the FORS2 (FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope.
“The image was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach,” the astronomers said.
“The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations.”
“All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.”
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