This stunning image shows the Seagull Nebula, so named because its shape suggests a bird with wings spreading out across space.
It is located 3,700 light-years away from us, in a distant arm of the Milky Way.
It sits between the constellations of Canis Major (The Great Dog) and Monoceros (The Unicorn).
The nebula is massive, spanning 100 light-years across, and it was recently shown off in this image captured by the European Southern Observatory’s VLT Survey Telescope.
The Seagull is a type of nebula called an emission nebula, meaning it is made of ionized gases which are ionized primarily by light emitted by a nearby star.
Emission nebulae are frequently very beautiful, being targets of some of the most famous Hubble images such as NGC 2174.