Cometary globules are isolated, faint, relatively small clouds of gas and dust within the Milky Way, many of them associtaed with the huge Gum nebula. Cometary globules were first recognised in 1976 and their faintness makes these objects particularly challenging objects for photography. This example is about 1300 light years distant in the direction of Pyxis, The dusty cloud contains enough material to make several sun-sized stars.

The head of the nebula is itself opaque, but glows because it is illuminated by light from a very hot star or stars nearby, off the bottom of the photograph. Their energy is gradually destroying the dusty head of the globule, sweeping away tiny particles that scatter the starlight as a faint, bluish reflection nebula.