CG4

CG 4, commonly referred to as God's Hand, is a star-forming region located in the Puppis constellation, about 1,300 light-years (400 pc) from Earth. It is one of several objects referred to as "cometary globules", because its shape is similar to that of a comet. It has a dense head formed of gas and dust, which is around 1.5 ly in diameter, and an elongated faint tail around 8 ly in length.⁣ ⁣ CG 4, and the nearby cometary globules, generally point away from the Vela Supernova Remnant, located at the center of the Gum Nebula (towards the right of the screen).⁣ ⁣ The head of cometary globule CG 4 resembles a comet with a dusty cavernous mouth, as photographed by Telescope.Live's CHI-2 telescope in Chile. Composed of relatively dense, dark matter, it is an opaque structure that is being illuminated by the glow of a nearby star. An obscure red glow limbing the globule is possibly caused by emission from ionized hydrogen. The mouth of the globule appears to be ready to consume the edge-on spiral galaxy ESO 257-19. In reality, the galaxy is over a hundred million light-years further away from the globule.⁣ ⁣