ESO's VST Telescope Captures the Sharpest Image of Prawn Nebula

Image of an enormous stellar nursery nicknamed Prawn Nebula consisting of glowing clutter of gas clouds was captured using the VST (VLT Survey Telescope) at ESO's (European Southern Observatory) Paranal Observatory in Chile.

This might be one of the sharpest snaps of the stellar nursery taken till date, which shows  the clusters of hot new-born stars nestled in among the clouds.

The Prawn Nebula, formally known as IC 4628, is located about 6000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius (The Scorpion). It is a giant region comprising of clumps of dark dust and gas clouds, which are star forming regions producing luminous hot young stars.

These hot stars emit a blue-white color in light and discharge intense radiation in other parts of the spectrum, especially in the UV (ultraviolet) spectrum. The gas clouds glow because of the UV light transmitted from the stars. The electrons present in the hydrogen atoms get stripped by this radiation, which recombine afterwards and release energy in the form of light.

Every chemical element gives out light at characteristic colors after this process occurs. The predominant color for hydrogen is red and IC 4628 is an example of the HII region, which is a large, low-density cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formations take place.

The Prawn Nebula covers an area of sky equivalent to four times the area of full Moon, which spreads across 250 light-years. This enormous nebula is often missed by the observers due to its faintness and human eye's insensitivity towards the lights emitted at such wavelengths by the nebula.

Stars have been generated individually and even in clusters in this region of the sky over the last few million years. A large scattered star cluster named Collinder 316 can be observed extending over most of the image, reveals the press release. Collinder 316 is a part of an enormous gathering of extremely hot and shining stars. The image also portrays various dark structures or cavities, where interstellar matter has been blown away by strong winds generated by the nearby hot stars.

The VST is the largest telescope in the world designed for surveying the sky in visible light. It is a state-of-the-art 2.6-metre telescope built around the OmegaCAM camera, which contains 32 CCD detectors that together create images of 268-megapixel. This new 24 000-pixel-broad image is a mosaic of two such images and is one of the largest single images ESO released till date.

The picture forms part of a detailed public survey of a huge part of the Milky Way called VPHAS+ that is using the power of the VST to search for new celestial bodies like young stars and planetary nebulae. The survey will also provide the best images taken so far.

In 1955, an Australian astronomer Colin Gum published a catalogue of HII regions, hence this nebula is also known as Gum 56.