This picture of Gum 39 is in fact just a small part of a 1.5-billion-pixel picture of the Running Chicken Nebula.

The information for this massive image were recorded by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST).

“It forms the comb on the running chicken’s head– a minimum of according to some individuals, due to the fact that everybody appears to see a various chicken,” ESO astronomers stated in a declaration.

“But for now, let’s zoom back in on Gum 39, as this nebula is formally called.”

“In the sky, you will discover it in the Centaurus constellation, about 6,500 light-years from Earth.”

“All around Gum 39, orange, white and blue stars are dotting the sky like fireworks.”

“The pink radiance that you see is fumes of hydrogen gas, brightened by the extreme radiation from newborn stars.”

“The nebula is likewise crossed by dark lanes of cosmic dust that obstruct the light behind them.”

“Nebulae like this are likewise called outstanding nurseries, since as these thick clouds of molecular gas gravitationally collapse they bring to life a lot of brand-new stars.”

“With telescopes like the VST and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), researchers observe these nebulae to get a much better understanding of the complicated procedure of how stars are born.”