A spooky bat has been spotted flying over the European Southern Observatory's (ESO's) Paranal site in Chile, right in time for Halloween. Thanks to its wide field of view, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) was able to capture this large cloud of cosmic gas and dust, whose mesmerising appearance resembles the silhouette of a bat.
Located about 10 000 light-years away, this 'cosmic bat' is flying between the southern constellations of Circinus and Norma. Spanning an area of the sky equivalent to four full Moons, it looks as if it's trying to hunt the glowing spot above it for food.
This nebula is a stellar nursery, a vast cloud of gas and dust from which stars are born. The infant stars within it release enough energy to excite hydrogen atoms around them, making them glow with the intense shade of red seen in this eye-catching image. The dark filaments in the nebula look like the skeleton of our space bat. These structures are colder and denser accumulations of gas than their surroundings, with dust grains that block the visible light from stars behind.
Named after a large catalogue of bright star-forming regions in the southern sky , the most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation.
This stunning stellar nursery was captured with the VST , a telescope owned and operated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and hosted at the ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert. The VST has the perfect capabilities to capture these large spooky creatures. Onboard it is OmegaCAM, a state-of-the-art 268-megapixel camera, which enables the VST to image vast areas of the sky.
This image was pieced together by combining observations through different filters, transparent to different colours or wavelengths of light. Most of the bat's shape, including the red glow, was captured in visible light as part of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge ( VPHAS+ ). Additional infrared data add a splash of colour in the densest parts of the nebula, and were obtained with ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy ( VISTA ) as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea ( VVV ) survey. Both surveys are open to everyone who wants to dive deep in this endless pool of cosmic photographs. Dare to look closer, and let your curiosity be haunted by the wonders that await in the dark. Happy Halloween!
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The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration for astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO's headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal, ESO will host and operate the south array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory, the world's largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates ALMA on Chajnantor, a facility that observes the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building "the world's biggest eye on the sky" — ESO's Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.
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