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Related: About this forumThe Mouth of the Beast (big space image)
Like the gaping mouth of a gigantic celestial creature, the cometary globule CG4 glows menacingly in this new image from ESOs Very Large Telescope. Although it appears to be big and bright in this picture, this is actually a faint nebula, which makes it very hard for amateur astronomers to spot. The exact nature of CG4 remains a mystery.
In 1976 several elongated comet-like objects were discovered on pictures taken with the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia. Because of their appearance, they became known as cometary globules even though they have nothing in common with comets. They were all located in a huge patch of glowing gas called the Gum Nebula. They had dense, dark, dusty heads and long, faint tails, which were generally pointing away from the Vela supernova remnant located at the centre of the Gum Nebula. Although these objects are relatively close by, it took astronomers a long time to find them as they glow very dimly and are therefore hard to detect.
The object shown in this new picture, CG4, which is also sometimes referred to as Gods Hand, is one of these cometary globules. It is located about 1300 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Puppis (The Poop, or Stern).
The head of CG4, which is the part visible on this image and resembles the head of the gigantic beast, has a diameter of 1.5 light-years. The tail of the globule which extends downwards and is not visible in the image is about eight light-years long. By astronomical standards this makes it a comparatively small cloud.
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http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1503/
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The Mouth of the Beast (big space image) (Original Post)
n2doc
Jan 2015
OP
djean111
(14,255 posts)1. Truly awesome picture. Thank you!
I was afraid it was going to be a picture of the Pentagon.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)2. Wait!
There's a "poop" constellation?!
...what did you think those "Dippers" were really for picking up?
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)3. it's.... GRINNING at me.
Mustellus
(328 posts)5. Betcha thats .....
a group of O and B stars.. recently formed, opening up the remnants of the gas cloud that spawned them....
Johnny Rash
(227 posts)6. Great POST!
Thanks!
Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)7. Where's Gov Crisco?
That's what I expected to see.