The European Southern Observatory (ESO, European Southern Observatory) has released a breathtaking image of NGC 1788, a reflection nebula lurking in the darkest regions of the constellation Orion.
The image shown below was taken with the Very Large Telescope as part of ESO's Space Treasures program. This initiative involves photographing interesting, mysterious or simply beautiful objects. The program is taking place at a time when ESO's telescopes are unable to make scientific observations for various reasons.
Nebula NGC 1788 is somewhat bat-shaped in outline. Education is at a distance of approximately 2000 light years from us.
The cosmic "bat" does not glow with its own light, but is illuminated by a cluster of young stars located in its bowels. The researchers believe that the nebula was formed by powerful stellar winds from nearby massive stars. βThe upper layers of their atmospheres are thrown into space by streams of hot plasma flying at incredible speeds, which affect the shape of the clouds surrounding newborn stars in the bowels of the nebula,β ESO notes.
It should be added that the presented image is the most detailed image of NGC 1788 from all that have been obtained to date.
Source: 3dnews.ru