Mysterious Cometary Globule, 'God's Hand,' is Captured in a Spectacular New Image

ESO's Very Large Telescope has captured a spectacular new image of the cometary globule CG4, which glows in fiery reds and oranges in the photo. This faint object is actually a nebula, and was first spotted in 1976.

CG4 is found in a huge patch of glowing gas called the Dark Nebula. It's just one of several objects with dark, dusty heads and long, faint tails. Also known as "God's Hand," this nebula is located about 1,300 away from Earth.

In the new image, you can see the head of CG4. This "head" has a diameter of about 1.5 light-years. The tail of the globule, which isn't visible in the image, extends downward and is about eight light-years in length. This makes the entire cloud comparatively small.

The head is made out of a thick cloud of gas and dust, which is only visible because it is illuminated by the light of nearby stars. The radiation emitted by these stars is gradually destroying the head of the globule, eroding away the tiny particles that scatter the starlight. However, this globule still contains enough gas to create several sun-sized stars. In fact, CG4 is actively forming new stars, perhaps triggered as radiation from the stars powers the Gum Nebula.

Why CG4 and other cometary globules have such distinct forms is still unknown to astronomers. To find out more, astronomers need to find out the density, temperature, mass and velocities of the materials in the globules. This would tell them a bit more about the origins of these globules. It's possible the globules are shaped by stellar winds and ionizing radiation, or that they could have originally been spherical globules before being disrupted from a nearby supernova explosion.

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