Astrophotographer Greg Meyer has released a new photo of a giant cloud of dust and gas that looks like a cosmic baboon, complete with a screaming face and glowing eyes.
This cosmic creature — a giant cloud of molecular dust — is located about 500 light-years from Earth in the constellation Corona Australis. Its "face" and "mouth" are composed of clouds of dust and gas and resemble a monkey's. The galaxy is about 30,000 light-years away and contains hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions, of stars.
Meyer captured this cosmic scene over 13 nights from June to August. In total, he collected 16.5 hours of observation data to capture this ancient light. The photographer then painstakingly processed the resulting images in Photoshop, Lightroom, and PixInsight.
"I could see faint traces of oxygen, but they were so insignificant that I kept filming until I said, 'Enough,'" Meyer said.
