(CNN) — The Seagull Nebula appears to be in flight, but it’s really an active stellar nursery full of newborn stars.
The European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope captured the details and features that comprise the nebula resembling a gull. It’s one of the largest survey telescopes in the world and views the sky in visible light, which is the spectrum we can see with the naked eye.
The nebula is full of heavy elements, dust, hydrogen and helium — all of which are needed for star formation.
The “wings” of the nebula is a large gas cloud called Sharpless 2-296. The wingspan measures 100 light-years across, where gas glows and dark dust weaves through along with the brightness of stars. This is called an emission nebula, where stars can be seen forming.
The vivid colors of the nebula are due to the radiation given off by the juvenile stars. They energize the gas around them, which causes them to glow.
The shape of the gas clouds in the Seagull Nebula are also sculpted by the radiation from the stars. The “head” of the Seagull Nebula is gas cloud Sharpless 2-292, which is much more compact than the wings. The brightest point in this gas cloud is a huge star called HD 53367 that is 20 times more massive than our sun. It’s the “eye” of the Seagull Nebula.
That cloud is a combination of an emission and reflection nebula because it also reflects light from outside of the nebula.
Nebulae vary in the number of stars they contain, which is why so many of them are made up of multiple clouds that are later compared to animals, according to a release from the European Southern Observatory.
The Seagull Nebula is between the Canis Major and Monoceros constellations, 3,700 light-years away in one of the Milky Way galaxy’s arms.
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