A Tour of the Gum 10 & 11 Nebulae in Puppis on the VST's 15th Anniversary | ESO
Imagine for a moment you are lying back, gazing up at the red-orange celestial clouds in this picture. What shapes do you see? A chicken pecking seeds on the ground, the head of a dragon, or something else entirely?
These pareidolia-inducing clouds are a pair of nebulae—collections of dust and gas in interstellar space—called Gum 10 and Gum 11. Visible mostly from the southern hemisphere, they are part of a larger complex where stars are born. Gum 10 is the brightest cloud that occupies most of the image, whereas Gum 11 is the fainter, detached cloud to the bottom-left. Their bright glow comes from a special interaction between hydrogen and the hot massive stars in each nebula. These stars emit ultraviolet light. They have enough energy to tear electrons away from their atoms, forming ions. These electrons eventually recombine with hydrogen ions. This causes the emission of the specific shade of red light seen in this image. The black lines in the nebula come from dust that blocks the light behind it.
This image was taken with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST). We are celebrating the 15th anniversary of its first light today! The VST project was a joint venture between European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Capodimonte Astronomical Observatory (OAC), part of the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF). Today, the VST is solely managed by INAF and is hosted by ESO at its Paranal Observatory in Chile. The data behind this picture comes from a project called VPHAS+. It uses the VST to scan across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, intended to better understand the lifecycle of stars.
Release Date: June 9, 2026
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