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Natal
Microcosm
In the
quest to
better
understand
the birth
of stars
and the
formation
of new
worlds,
astronomers
have used
NASA's
Spitzer
Space
Telescope
to examine
the
massive
stars
contained
in a
cloudy
region
called
Sharpless
140. This
cloud is a
star-forming
microcosm
that
exhibits,
within a
relatively
small
area, all
of the
classic
manifestations
of stellar
birth.
Sharpless
140 lies
almost
3,000
light-years
from Earth
in the
constellation
Cepheus.
At its
heart is a
cluster of
three
deeply
embedded
young
stars,
which are
each
several
thousand
times
brighter
than the
sun.
Though
they are
strikingly
visible in
this image
from
Spitzer's
infrared
array
camera,
they are
completely
obscured
in visible
light,
buried
within the
core of
the
surrounding
dust
cloud.
The
extreme
youth of
at least
one of
these
stars is
indicated
by the
presence
of a
stream of
gas moving
at high
velocities.
Such
outflows
are
signatures
of the
processes
surrounding
a star
that is
still
gobbling
up
material
as part of
its
formation.
The bright
red bowl,
or arc,
seen in
this image
traces the
outer
surface of
the dense
dust cloud
encasing
the young
stars.
This arc
is made up
primarily
of organic
compounds
called
polycyclic
aromatic
hydrocarbons,
which glow
on the
surface of
the cloud.
Ultraviolet
light from
a nearby
bright
star
outside of
the image
is
"eating
away"
at these
molecules.
Eventually,
this light
will
destroy
the dust
envelope
and the
masked
young
stars will
emerge.
This
false-color
image was
taken on
Oct. 11,
2003. |
