VST Captures Beautiful Emission Nebula: Gum 41

Using ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at Paranal Observatory in Chile, astronomers have produced this beautiful image of the little-known nebula Gum 41.

Gum 41 is located in the southern constellation of Centaurus, about 7,300 light-years away.

The nebula was discovered by the Australian astronomer Colin Gum discovered on images taken at the Mount Stromlo Observatory near Canberra.

Gum included this object in his catalogue of 84 emission nebulae, which was published in 1955.

In the middle of Gum 41, hot young stars are giving off energetic radiation that causes the surrounding hydrogen to glow with a characteristic red hue.

Another famous example of this phenomenon is the Lagoon Nebula, a vast cloud that glows in similar bright shades of scarlet.

Gum 41 is actually part of a bigger structure called the Lambda Centauri Nebula, also known by the more exotic name of the Running Chicken Nebula.

“Set against a colorful backdrop of stars, Gum 41 is a pleasantly symmetric example of a Strömgren sphere, a shell of hydrogen gas atoms glowing in rosy hues due to the radiation of the dazzling central star,” ESO astronomers said.

“While this star, called HD 100099, may appear to be one very bright object, it is actually thought to be two young, massive stars orbiting in such a tight embrace that they cannot be separated at the scale of the VST image.”

“This romantic region is home to many pairs like this, including the luminous object on the lower right outskirts of the nebula, HD 99944.”

“Sadly, the love story in these stellar couples will have a tragic ending: unlike our Sun, these hot and massive stars tend to have short lifetimes of only a few million years, and eventually there will be no young stars left to make the nebula glow.”

“One day, Gum 41 will fade into transparency and be lost to future astronomers forever.”

“Gum 41 is also a member of a much larger region, affectionately called the Running Chicken Nebula,” they said.

“Whether Gum 41 forms the foot or the head of the chicken is surprisingly controversial.”