IRAS 20324+4057 is a mixture of interstellar gas and dust that extends a light year in length in the Cygnus constellation, 4,600 light-years away.
[2] It is located within the Cygnus OB2 association.
[2] It has been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope and has been nicknamed a "Cosmic Caterpillar", as it resembles a crawling caterpillar.
[3] The head of the object is a protostar, but the presence of 65 O-type stars, which tend to scatter the matter accumulated by the Cosmic caterpillar, leaves doubt whether the caterpillar will survive and mature into a star.
This nebula-related article is a stub.