Fox Fur Nebula

This image is of NGC 2264, a star-forming region. It consists of dark, interstellar dust clouds illuminated red by the light of newly forming stars, 2,700 light-years away. The actual size of the image is about the size of a full moon, or 30 light-years across, in the sky.

There's actually more than one nebula in this photo. The title is for a nebula because the most obvious one is the Fox Fur Nebula, and because I dislike a title called the NGC 2264 region.

The Fox Fur Nebula is the nebula in the lower right corner and resembles a fox. The long triangular structure on the left and right is the Cone Nebula. The stars just to the right of the nebula are the constellation Christmas Tree. This entire region is NGC 2264, located in the constellation Unicorn.