IC 2944 (Running Chicken Nebula) in Centaurus

(move the mouse over thumbnails - please be patient until image downloads)

IC 2944 (note as Running Chicken Nebula, or improperly as Lambda Centauri Nebula) is an H II region of the Milky Way visible in the Southern constellation Centaurus. Its distance is about 2000 parsecs ( 6500 light years) and is part of the Sagittarius Arm , the nearest spiral arm of the Milky Way. The best known feature of this cloud is the presence of some dark cocoons , known as Thackeray globules. Due to their instability , inside them there is no phenomena of active star formation, while their origin is due to the action of the disintegrant radiation of massive stars in the region, which over time has eroded the ancient molecular cloud. The galactic environment in which this nebula is situated is among the most complex known in the spiral arms of the Milky Way. Within a radius of only 500 parsecs from it there are in fact some of the most conspicuous objects of the southern sky. Among these is the Eta Carina Nebula , massive clusters Tr 14 and Tr 16 , and the bright cluster NGC 4755 (the famous Jewel Box Cluster).

This is an image taken with 12" ASA astrograph. An image taken with 16" Dream Corrected Astrograph (DCA) can be seen here

Object details

Image details