Is this a cosmic monster ready to devour an unsuspecting galaxy?!
The red "monster” shown in the featured image is Cometary Globule CG 4. It is 1,300 light-years away in the Constellation Puppis. CG 4 is a molecular cloud, where hydrogen becomes cold enough to form molecules that can be brought together by gravity to create stars. The shape of CG 4 resembles that of a comet, but its head is 1.5 light-year in diameter and its tail is 8 light-years long- for comparison, the distance from the Earth to the sun is only 8 light-minutes. Astronomers believe that the tail of a cometary globule could have been shaped by a nearby supernova explosion or by irradiation from hot, massive stars. The edge-on spiral galaxy, ESO 257-19, is more than a hundred million light-years beyond CG 4, and is completely safe from the "monster”.
Image Copyright: William Vrbasso
