This image shows a cloud of gas and dust, shaped like a cosmic bat. The image was obtained mostly in visible light with the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The intense red glow comes from hydrogen atoms ionised by the intense radiation of young stars within the cloud. The image also includes additional infrared data captured by ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA), also at Paranal.

The most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation. Credit: ESO/ VPHAS+ team/ VVV team.

A spooky bat has been spotted flying over the European Southern Observatory’s (ESO’s) Paranal site in Chile, right in time for Halloween.

Thanks to its wide field of view, the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) was able to capture this large cloud of cosmic gas and dust, whose mesmerising appearance resembles the silhouette of a bat.

Located about 10,000 light-years away, this ‘cosmic bat’ is flying between the southern constellations of Circinus and Norma.

Spanning an area of the sky equivalent to four full Moons, it looks as if it’s trying to hunt the glowing spot above it for food. 

This image from the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) shows the region of the sky around the RCW 94 and RCW 95 nebulae, seen here at the centre of the image. The nebulae are part of a larger complex of clouds resembling a bat, with RCW 94 representing the right wing and RCW 95 the body, respectively. Credit: ESO/ Digitized Sky Survey 2.

Stellar nursery

This nebula is a stellar nursery, a vast cloud of gas and dust from which stars are born.

The infant stars within it release enough energy to excite hydrogen atoms around them, making them glow with the intense shade of red seen in this eye-catching image.

The dark filaments in the nebula look like the skeleton of our space bat. These structures are colder and denser accumulations of gas than their surroundings, with dust grains that block the visible light from stars behind. 

Named after a large catalogue of bright star-forming regions in the southern sky, the most prominent clouds here are RCW 94, which represents the right wing of the bat, and RCW 95, which forms the body, while the other parts of the bat have no official designation. 

This stunning stellar nursery was captured with the VST, a telescope owned and operated by the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) and hosted at the ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

The VST has the perfect capabilities to capture these large spooky creatures. Onboard it is OmegaCAM, a state-of-the-art 268-megapixel camera, which enables the VST to image vast areas of the sky. 

Red glow

This image was pieced together by combining observations through different filters, transparent to different colours or wavelengths of light.

Most of the bat’s shape, including the red glow, was captured in visible light as part of the VST Photometric Hα Survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+).

Additional infrared data add a splash of colour in the densest parts of the nebula, and were obtained with ESO’s Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vía Láctea (VVV) survey.

Both surveys are open to everyone who wants to dive deep in this endless pool of cosmic photographs.

Dare to look closer, and let your curiosity be haunted by the wonders that await in the dark.

Happy Halloween!