IC 2944 Running Chicken Nebula Crop

IC 2944, Running Chicken Nebula,This image is of the body of the larger nebula which completes the running chicken shape. It is a gaseous emission nebula where star formation takes place. Cataloged as IC 2944, the nebula spans about 100 light years and lies about 6,000 light years away toward the constellation of the Centaur(Centaurus). The star cluster Collinder 249 is visible embedded in the central blue green area of the nebula’s glowing gas.Ultraviolet radiation from this cluster is exciting the gas in the nebula to re emit light. The image is in false color in the Hubble palette where green comes from Hydrogen gas emission, red from Sulfur emission and blue from Oxygen emission.  In this area dark shapes can be seen called Bok globules which typically are areas of star formation. The central area is surrounded by a darker horseshoe shaped cloud which has several dark cone shaped structures that are also areas of star formation. The orange color here comes from a combination of Sulfur and Hydrogen emission and the blue green color of the central area comes from a combination of Hydrogen and Oxygen emission. This image is a cropped version of a larger image emphasizing the central region of Bok globules and star formation.