Discovered by Filipe Alves in 2013, this fascinating nebulosity in the constellation of Auriga is a true ghost. If you try looking it up in any catalogue, you will find next to nothing as it doesn’t really fit into any of the usual categories used by professional astronomers. Objects like this often get left out of major catalogs, and once that happens, they tend to be forgotten.
Alves 2 is likely a region of ionized interstellar medium (ISM). It seems to be made of mostly ionized oxygen and hydrogen. Beyond that, it’s still a mystery that the cosmic Charioteer keeps to itself.
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