Object Analysis

The Running Chicken Nebula (IC 2944), also known as the Lambda Centauri Nebula, is an open cluster with an associated emission nebula found in the constellation Centaurus. It is located about 6,500 light-years from Earth. The nebula is a region of active star formation.

The nebula gets its humorous name from its shape in photographs, which some people see as a giant chicken running across the sky. It contains Bok globules, which are dense, dark clouds of gas and dust where new stars are being born. These particular globules are known as Thackeray's Globules.

The cluster of stars embedded in the nebula, Collinder 249, is responsible for ionizing the gas and causing it to glow. The intense ultraviolet radiation from these hot, young stars is also eroding the dark globules, slowly destroying the very nurseries that created them.