IC 2948

The Running Chicken Nebula is home to a number of young stars in the making. This wonderful nebula is located in the constellation Centaurus, about 6500 light-years from Earth. The young stars inside it emit intense radiation that makes hydrogen glow. The space occupied by the nebula is vast, what we can see in this image extends over an area in the sky about 25 full moons. The brightest region within the nebula is called IC 2948, here some people see the head of the chicken while others well... its back! The thin pastel outlines are plumes of gas and dust. Towards the center of the image, marked by the bright, vertical, almost pillar-like structure, is IC 2944. The brightest twinkle in this particular region is Lambda Centauri, a star visible to the naked eye that is much closer to us than to the nebula itself.