The Al Khatim Astronomical Observatory, part of the International Astronomy Center in Abu Dhabi, successfully captured the 'Scary Face' nebula, located within the emission nebula SH2-54 in the Serpens constellation, approximately 6,200 light-years from Earth, through precise astrophotography sessions that lasted 60 continuous hours.

Director of the International Astronomy Center, Mohammed Odeh, said in a special statement to 'Sabq' that the team used two different telescopes to complete this work. The first was a small refracting telescope with a diameter of 4.3 inches, equipped with a color camera and a filter to reduce light pollution, with a total exposure time of 25.4 hours resulting from stacking 305 images at 5 minutes each.

The second telescope was a large Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector with a diameter of 14 inches, equipped with a monochrome camera and three specialized filters for hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur. The total exposure time with this telescope was 35 hours, achieved by stacking 704 images at 3 minutes each, distributed as follows: 252 images through the hydrogen filter (12.6 hours), 222 images through the oxygen filter (11.1 hours), and 230 images through the sulfur filter (11.5 hours).

Odeh added that SH2-54 is classified as an emission nebula, which are massive clouds of ionized hydrogen that glow due to ultraviolet radiation from nearby hot young stars. These regions represent some of the most prominent star-forming sites in the Milky Way, where parts of the gas clouds collapse under gravity to generate new stars that may continue to evolve for millions of years. This region belongs to a broader system of molecular clouds in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way, making it an important research target for studying star birth and interactions with the surrounding medium.

Odeh explained that the 'Scary Face' is not an independent astronomical object but a visual pattern formed by dense clouds of gas and dust within the nebula, appearing to the observer as a face with eyes and a mouth.

The colors of the final image reveal the composition of the gas nebula: red represents hydrogen gas emissions as the most abundant element in the nebula, blue indicates oxygen gas emissions, and orange indicates sulfur gas emissions, from areas with varying temperatures and densities, allowing astronomers to study the physical properties of gas clouds and the mechanisms of star formation within them.

The imaging was carried out by Mohammed Odeh, while Anas Sameh Odeh supervised the image processing. The observatory team included Osama Ghannam, Anas Mohammed, and Khalfan Al Nuaimi.