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

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]