Astronomers at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile have captured a new image of part of the Seagull Nebula.
This cloud of gas known as Sharpless 2-292 seems to form the head of the seagull and glows brightly due to the energetic radiation from a very hot young star lurking at its heart. It lies just on the border between the constellations of Monoceros and Canis Major and is close to Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky.
Sharpless 2-292 is just one part of the Seagull Nebula (IC 2177), which spreads its wings with a span of over 100 light-years and resembles a seagull in flight.
The complex of gas and dust that forms the head of the seagull glows brightly in the sky due to the strong ultraviolet radiation coming mostly from one brilliant young star – HD 53367 – that can be spotted in the center of the image and could be taken to be the seagull’s eye.
The radiation from the young stars causes the surrounding hydrogen gas to glow with a rich red color. Light from the hot blue-white stars is also scattered off the tiny dust particles in the nebula to create a contrasting blue haze in some parts of the picture.
Although a small bright clump in the Seagull Nebula complex was observed for the first time by the German-British astronomer Sir William Herschel back in 1785, the part shown here had to await photographic discovery about a century later.
