PARANAL / LONDON (IT BOLTWISE) – A mesmerizing image of a cosmic bat lights up the sky over Chile. This impressive formation of gas and dust was captured by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope. The image shows a cradle of stars in which new stars are being formed and is reminiscent of the silhouette of a bat hovering over the southern constellations Circinus and Norma.
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Just in time for Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a spectacular image showing a ghostly bat in the sky. This cosmic phenomenon, spotted over the Paranal site in Chile, is the result of a huge cloud of cosmic gas and dust. Thanks to its large field of view, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) was able to capture this fascinating formation, which is reminiscent of the silhouette of a bat.
The so-called ‘cosmic bat’ is located about 10,000 light-years away and flies between the southern constellations Circinus and Norma. It spans an area of the sky equivalent to four full moons. This formation is a cradle of stars from which new stars are born. The young stars in the cloud emit enough energy to excite the hydrogen atoms around them, resulting in the intense red glow seen in the image.
The dark filaments in the nebula, which look like the skeleton of the bat, are colder and denser collections of gas that block the visible light of the stars behind them. The most prominent clouds in this formation are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body. This stunning star-forming site was captured using the VST, which has the perfect equipment to capture such cosmic phenomena.
The image was assembled from observations using different filters that allow different colors or wavelengths of light to pass through. Most of the bat shape was captured in visible light as part of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+). Additional infrared data, providing color to the densest parts of the nebula, were obtained using ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) study.
The European Southern Observatory, founded in 1962, plays a central role in international astronomy. It operates some of the world’s most advanced observatories, including the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These facilities enable scientists to explore the mysteries of the universe and gain new insights.
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