It’s a case of poultry perfection as the Running Chicken Nebula is revealed in high resolution
VLT SURVEY TELESCOPE, 21 DECEMBER 2023
This 1.5-billion-pixel image of the Running Chicken Nebula, which lies 6,500 lightyears from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, is a mosaic compiled from hundreds of frames taken by the OmegaCAM instrument on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope. The area depicted measures 270 lightyears across and within it you can clearly see the disparate elements that make up the Running Chicken: pink, round emission nebula IC 2948 (the ‘body’ of the chicken, lower left), open cluster IC 2944 (the fainter ‘neck’, centre) and Bok globules GUM 39, 40 and 41 (right).
Also visible is Lambda Centauri, the bright blue star in the middle – although this is much closer to Earth, at just 470 lightyears’ distance.
As clear as mud
MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER, 19 DECEMBER 2023
The conical mounds with central, bowl-like depressions seen in this image of the Martian surface are believed to be mud volcanoes, similar to those found in many continents on Earth. Mud volcanoes are not igneous and spew no lava, but are instead formed when subterranean gas and liquid bubble up through muddy terrain.
Peak performance
JUNO, 22 DECEMBER 2023
This image of Jovian moon Io’s north polar region was originally captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft in October last year. Processing by citizen scientist Ted Stryk then revealed three previously unseen peaks (towards the top, close to the terminator) that are believed to result from volcanic activity.
Spiral illusion
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE, 25 DECEMBER 2023
This image contains four spiral galaxies: IC 1947 on the left and
