Cosmic Bat Nebulae? RCW 94/95 in Vela | Happy Halloween! | ESO

Cosmic Bat Nebulae? RCW 94/95 in Vela | Happy Halloween! | ESO

A telescopic view of a cosmic cloud against a dark starry sky. The cloud resembles a flying bat, spanning its wings. The cloud is mostly red with areas partially blocked by dark dust clumps.

This image shows a cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. The image was obtained mostly in visible light with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The intense red glow comes from hydrogen atoms ionized by the intense radiation of young stars within the cloud. The image also includes additional infrared data captured by the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), also at Paranal.

The most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, representing the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, forming the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation.

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/VPHAS+ team/VVV team

Release Date: Oct. 31, 2025

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