The stunning feature, which spans 190 light years has long thin strands which resemble a candy cane in the middle of space. The candy cane shape is made up of multiple ionised gas called filaments. An image of the candy cane can be found on NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre website.
The picture depicts the inner part of our galaxy, which hosts the largest and densest collection of giant molecular clouds, according to Fox News.
Richard Arendt, a team member at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Goddard said: “It was a real surprise to see the Radio Arc in the GISMO data.
“Its emission comes from high-speed electrons spiraling in a magnetic field, a process called synchrotron emission.
“Another feature GISMO sees, called the Sickle, is associated with star formation and may be the source of these high-speed electrons.”
Blue and cyan features reveal cold dust in the clouds which is where star formation is still very new.
Yellow features, which make up the candy cane’s handle, reveal the presence of ionised gas.
They also show well-developed star formation while the red and orange regions show areas where synchrotron emission occurs.
The image was published using a Goddard-IRAM Superconducting 2-Millimeter Observer (GISMO).
JUST IN: An asteroid detected by NASA last week will skim Earth tonight
At this rate, NASA expects the asteroid to close in on Earth right after Christmas, on Boxing Day, December 26.
The rock will appear in Earth’ corner of space around 7.54am GMT (2.54am EST).
Astronomers have named the rocky body Asteroid 2000 CH59 and have dubbed it “potentially hazardous” due to its colossal size.
Based on NASA’s predictions, the rock is large enough to level an entire continent should it come crashing into our planet.
The US space agency estimates CH59 measures somewhere between 918ft to 2,034ft (280m to 620m) across.
NASA keeps a watchful eye on asteroids zipping around Earth due to their destructive potential.
When a six mile-wide (10km) rock struck the Earth 66 million years ago, the impact triggered a mass extinctions that ended the reign of the dinosaurs.
But even much smaller asteroids have caused considerable chaos when they struck Earth in the past.
In 2013, for instance, a 20m-wide (65.6ft) rock entered Earth’s atmosphere undetected and exploded over Russia.