{"id":461328,"date":"2026-05-22T06:49:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461328\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T06:49:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T06:49:15","slug":"a-bird-of-prey-sails-away-in-nebula-rcw-36","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/461328\/","title":{"rendered":"A bird of prey sails away in nebula RCW 36"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tBack to Article List\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\tThis nebula, which resembles a hawk, boasts an open cluster of massive young stars at its heart, surrounded by glowing clouds of hydrogen gas.\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tBy\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.astronomy.com\/author\/richard-talcott\/\" title=\"Posts by Richard Talcott\" class=\"author url fn\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Richard Talcott<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t | <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tPublished: May 21, 2026<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t| Last updated on May 22, 2026\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"2405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ASY-BT0726_01.png\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"A richly detailed telescope image of a star-forming nebula, filled with swirling clouds of blue, orange, and pink gas and dust. Dark pillars of dense dust cut through the center of the image, surrounded by glowing nebular material and hundreds of orange and yellow stars scattered throughout. A bright cluster of young stars illuminates the lower right portion of the image, casting a warm glow against the surrounding gas clouds.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCredit: ESO\/A.R.G. do Brito do Vale et al.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"2405\" width=\"2560\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ASY-BT0726_01.png\" alt=\"A richly detailed telescope image of a star-forming nebula, filled with swirling clouds of blue, orange, and pink gas and dust. Dark pillars of dense dust cut through the center of the image, surrounded by glowing nebular material and hundreds of orange and yellow stars scattered throughout. A bright cluster of young stars illuminates the lower right portion of the image, casting a warm glow against the surrounding gas clouds.\" class=\"wp-image-171296\"  \/>Credit: ESO\/A.R.G. do Brito do Vale et al.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the early 1960s, Alexander Rodgers, Colin Campbell, and John Whiteoak compiled a catalog of emission nebulae in the southern Milky Way. A particularly impressive entry, RCW 36, resides 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Vela the Sails. RCW 36 boasts an open cluster of massive young stars at its heart, surrounded by glowing clouds of hydrogen gas destined to birth future generations. Thick ropes of cold gas and dust complete the picture. Some observers see a hawk in this nebula, with the dark body and head near the center and filamentary wings extending to the left and right. Appropriately enough, astronomers captured this image with the European Southern Observatory\u2019s High Acuity Wide-field K-band Imager (HAWK-I). The camera views the cosmos through one of the 8-meter mirrors of the Very Large Telescope.<\/p>\n<p>PREMIUM CONTENT<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis article is for subscribers<\/p>\n<p class=\"kserv-gate__simple-message\">Log in to continue reading, or subscribe to get unlimited access to all content.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\tContinue Reading<\/p>\n<p>PREMIUM CONTENT<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis article is for subscribers<\/p>\n<p class=\"kserv-gate__simple-message\">Log in to continue reading, or subscribe to get unlimited access to all content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back to Article List This nebula, which resembles a hawk, boasts an open cluster of massive young stars&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461329,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,709,15742,82,3212],"class_list":["post-461328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-magazine","tag-nebulae","tag-science","tag-stars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461328\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}