NGC 2467, also known as the “Skull and Crossbones Nebula,” is a region where new stars are being born. Some people think it looks like a grinning skull, while others see the face of a colorful mandrill.
Much like the brighter Orion Nebula, the Skull and Crossbones is composed of vast clouds of gas and dust within which hot new blue stars are forming.
NGC 2467 / Sh2-311 (114 min total exposure Jan 30, 2025)
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Here’s the brighter part of NGC 2467, annotated to show items of interest mentioned below
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Some tidbits about the Skull and Crossbones
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This nebula is tricky to capture from my location because it sits low on the southern horizon and is only visible in late winter. Most of the detailed images you’ll find online were taken in the Southern Hemisphere, like in Chile or Australia, where it appears much higher in the sky.
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The Skull and Crossbones Nebula is a stellar nursery located about 13,000 light-years from Earth.
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NGC 2467 (also catalogued as Sh2-311) is actually not a single open cluster surrounded by nebulosity as was originally thought, but is a superposition of very different stellar objects along our line of sight. The nebula contains the very young open clusters Haffner 18 and Haffner 19, the latter is surrounded by a bright red circular object.
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The bright star HD 64315 is the powerhouse of this nebula. Its intense radiation sculpts the surrounding gas, shaping the structure of the nebula over time. Without this massive star, the nebula wouldn’t look the way it does today.
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Those dark splotches visible throughout the nebula are Bok Globules, regions where dust is so tightly packed that light from embedded stars cannot get out. Over time, the powerful radiation from massive stars like HD 64315 will erode and reshape these globules, revealing what’s inside.
About the nicknames
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I rotated my image (with South at the top) to highlight what I think looks most like a skull. Personally, I don’t see any crossbones!
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Other people turn the nebula and clusters back right side up, and say that the cluster Haffner 19 marks the right eye of the Skull Nebula and the bright star HD64455 marks the left eye.
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Some observers liken its appearance to the face of a long-snouted mandrill monkey.
What do you see?
Here’s a word you probably didn’t know
Pareidolia, the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a visual stimulus, so that one detects an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples include perceived images of animals, faces, or objects in cloud formations; seeing faces in inanimate objects; or lunar pareidolia like the Man in the Moon.
I only came across the word “pareidolia” just recently, but it turns out I’ve been talking about it all along! If you’ve followed my previous posts, you know I always discuss nebula nicknames —- pareidolia at work!
Here are some interesting links to click on: