# IC 2944, Nicknamed the Running Chicken Nebula

- By: ESO
- Date: 2011-09-21
- Classification: Photograph
- Credit line: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1135a/
- Museum: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IC_2944,_Nicknamed_the_Running_Chicken_Nebula.jpg)
- Rights: [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)
- Picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/12/IC_2944%2C_Nicknamed_the_Running_Chicken_Nebula.jpg/1920px-IC_2944%2C_Nicknamed_the_Running_Chicken_Nebula.jpg
- Who can see it: Kids profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

image from the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope shows the Running Chicken Nebula, a cloud of gas and newborn stars that lies around 6500 light-years away from us in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). Officially called IC 2944, or the Lambda Centauri Nebula, its strange nickname comes from the bird-like shape of its brightest region. The star Lambda Centauri itself lies just outside the field of view.