New image from one of Earth's largest telescopes shows a 'star factory' nebula in stunning detail

• A new picture shows a nebula 2,500 light-years away in spectacular detail.
• The Cone Nebula was snapped by the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope.

A newly-released picture shows the "Cone Nebula" in stunning detail. It is around 2,500 light years away.

The picture was released on Thursday by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), on the occasion of the institute's 60th anniversary.

The nebula was snapped earlier this year by the ESO's Very Large Telescope, one of the world's largest, which is in the Atacama desert in Chile.

Nebulas are star factories. The dense cloud of cosmic dust and gas is the perfect breeding ground for new, bright stars, some of which can be seen near the top of the cloud in the picture above.

The Cone Nebula's shape is due to a star at the tip of the nebula blasting away the gas and dust as it is formed, compressing the dust into a dense pillar-like shape, per an accompanying press release.

At about 2,500 light-years from Earth, the Cone Nebula is relatively close to us, which makes it easy to observe.

To find the Cone Nebula, scientists turned their telescope towards the Monoceros (unicorn) constellation, about halfway between the Betelgeuse and Procyon stars.

The unicorn constellation is visible in the winter sky from the Northern Hemisphere.

The ESO's Very Large Telescope is one of the largest telescopes in the world.