IC 2944
Emission nebula and open star cluster | |
---|---|
IC 2944 | |
Photo of the 2.2m ESO / MPG telescope | |
Constellation | centaur |
Position equinox : J2000.0 |
|
Right ascension | 11h 36m 36s |
declination | -63 ° 02 ′ 00 ″ |
Further data | |
Brightness (visual) |
4.5 mag |
Angular expansion |
40/20 |
distance |
6,500 light years |
history | |
discovery |
Royal Harwood Frost |
Date of discovery |
May 5, 1904 |
Catalog names | |
IC 2944 • | |
Aladin previewer |
IC 2944 (English also Running Chicken Nebula ) is an emission nebula with an embedded star cluster in the constellation Centaur in the southern sky . The nebula results from an H-II region of the Milky Way , which is about 2000 parsecs (6500 light years ) away and is therefore located in the Sagittarius Arm , the next inner spiral arm of the Milky Way.
The most famous feature of this region are some dark cocoons, known as globules or more precisely as globules Thackeray, in which stars are formed .
The object was discovered by Royal Harwood Frost on May 5, 1904 .
photos
Web links
- ESO : New ESO image of the Lambda Centauri Nebula (incl. Map & animation) September 21, 2011
- astronews.com: Mysterious Globules in IC 2944 Jan. 4, 2002
- astronews.com: Stellar nursery for the anniversary May 23, 2013
- astronews.com: Picture of the day January 21, 2014
- Spektrum .de: amateur recordings [1]