Dark pillar of the Cone Nebula captured by the VLT

A very large telescope has been used to take a picture of a distant nebula. The Cone Nebula is 7 light years long and is located in the constellation of Monoceros. Next to the Christmas Tree cluster is the Cone Nebula.

60 years ago, the European Southern Observatory was formed. The Very Large Telescope is one of the ground-based telescopes operated by the ESO.

This image was captured by the Very Large Telescope using its FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 instrument. In this picture, hydrogen is seen in blue and sulfur is seen in red. The bright yellow-looking stars in the picture are very young and bright, being born in the swirl of dust and gas of the nebula.

The Cone Nebula is a perfect example of the pillar-like shapes that develop in the giant clouds of cold molecular gas and dust. Massive, newly formed bright blue stars give off stellar winds and intense ultraviolet radiation that blow away the material from their vicinity. Gas and dust further away from the young stars get compressed into dense, dark and tall pillar-like shapes as this material is pushed away. The Cone Nebula can be seen pointing away from the stars.

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