An orange and red cloud, part of the Sh2-284 Nebula, popularly known as the Laughing Cat Nebula, It was obtained using data from the VLT Survey Telescope, which is located at the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

This nebula is a vast region of dust and gas, and the brightest part, visible in the captured image, spans about 150 light-years (over 1,400 trillion kilometers). It is located about 15,000 light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Monoceros.

Located in the center of the brightest part of the nebula, just below the cat’s nose, there is a cluster of young stars known as Dolidze 25 that produces large amounts of radiation and strong winds.

The radiation is powerful enough to ionize the hydrogen gas in the cloud, creating the bright orange and red colors. Clouds like these are the “bricks” for the construction of new stars.

Winds from the central star cluster blow away gas and dust in the nebula, eroding the center. When wind encounters denser pockets of material, they offer more resistance, meaning the areas around them erode first.

This creates several pillars that are visible, along the edges of Sh2-284, pointing toward the center of the nebula, like the one on the right side of the image. While these pillars may appear small in the image, they are actually several light-years across and contain vast amounts of gas and dust from which new stars form.

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