A new image taken by the European Space Agency’s European Space Observatory telescopes reveals a beautiful dark appearance of the nebula. It is part of a region called NGC 2264, first discovered by astronomer William Herschel in the late 18th century, a star-forming region in the Milky Way galaxy farther away. 2500 light years from Earth which makes it look like a mythical creature.
The conical nebula’s unique shape is caused by huge clouds of cold molecular gas and dust known to form new stars.
This cloud formation occurs when newly formed massive blue stars release stellar winds and intense ultraviolet rays that reveal matter from their vicinity.
This process helps create the dark Cone Nebula, which flies away from the brightest star in NGC 2264. The image was acquired by two instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory located in Chile.
nearby nebula
Although this particular nebula has been studied before, the new image shows it in a more dramatic way, and this nebula can be found in the sky in the constellation Monoceros.