APOD 3.7

Pictured above is the Running Chicken Nebula, spanning 70 light-years at a 6,000 light year distance, and is of particular importance due to the "eggs" forming into stars. The dark globules in the center of the picture are known as Thackeray's Globules, the sites for gravitational star formation and are quickly being eroded away from the radiation of the young stars. The stars here form the open cluster Collinder 249.