Mysterious Cometary Globules Are Not Comets at All, Astronomers Say (PHOTOS)

A mysterious and faint nebula, cometary globule CG4, looks like a threatening creature in a new image from European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope (VLT), according to a press release from the observatory.

Many comet-like objects were seen in 1976 by the UK Schmidt Telescope in Australia in a glowing plot of gas called the Gum Nebula. They were labeled cometary globules, but they had nothing in common with actual comets, according to ESO. The cometary globules were marked by dusty heads and long tails which pointed away from a supernova remnant, Vela, located in the middle of the Gum Nebula.

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Nebula, Mystery, Mystery Object, Australia, ESO, European Southern Observatory, Very Large Telescope, VLT, Comets, Astronomers, Astronomy, Light years, Cloud, Gas cloud, Sun, Star, Radiation, Mass, Density, Temperature, Photos