If our eyes could look deep into space we’d see the clouds in this stellar nursery in the Centaurus constellation, 6,500 light years away.

This pink glowing nebula and clouds of dust were photographed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) at Cerro Paranal, Chile.  The nebula’s formal name is IC 2944.  Because it’s visible to the naked eye it has a nickname too: The Running Chicken Nebula.

According to ESO’s description, the clouds are Thackeray globules “under fierce bombardment from the ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars.”

Click here or on the image to find out what will happen to the clouds.

If you know where to look on a clear night, you can see a running chicken in the sky.

(photo of stellar nursery IC 2944 by ESO, the European Southern Observatory at Cerro Paranal, Chile. Click on the image to see the original)