#cg 4

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God's Hand, CG 4 // Greg Boot

[spacewonder19]

CG4: ghostly 'God's Hand' ©

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'God’s Hand' Reaches Through the Interstellar Fog !

Meet CG 4, a striking cosmic structure located in the Gum Nebula about 1,300 light-years from Earth. “CG” stands for Cometary Globules—dense interstellar clouds of gas and dust with a distinct head, a long trailing tail, and a bright outline. They’re nicknamed cometary globules because of their comet-like appearance. The Gum Nebula contains 32 of these CGs.

Commonly called the “God’s Hand,” CG 4 is a star-forming region with its tail pointing away from the Vela Supernova Remnant at the nebula’s center. In images, the globule’s head appears like a comet with a mouth carved into it. This head spans 1.5 light-years across, while its hazy, elongated tail stretches about 8 light-years.

How these globules get their shapes remains a mystery. One theory suggests that the Vela Pulsar—located in the heart of the Vela Supernova Remnant—may have sculpted CG 4 with intense stellar winds and radiation pressure.

The globule’s head is extremely dense and opaque, illuminated by a nearby star. A glowing red outline marks the emission of ionized hydrogen, caused by energetic radiation from that star.

Image Credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA

Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)

[quiltofstars]

God's Hand, CG 4 // David Lawson

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God's Hand, CG 4 // Junrui Ye

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"God's Hand", CG 4 // Lucas Di Pentima

This dusty worm-like creature appears ready to devour the background galaxy ESO 257-19!

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God's Hand, CG 4 // Rodrigo Maeda

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"God's Hand", CG 4 // Capturing Ancient Photons

The "hand" is outstretched towards the much more distant galaxy PGC 21338. Compare CG 4's distance of about 1,300 light years to the galaxy's distance of 117,000,000 light years, about 90,000 times further away!