Dozens of newborn stars sprouting jets
from their dusty cocoons have been spotted in images from NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin.
› Full image and caption
This infrared image shows a striking
example of what is called a hierarchical bubble structure, in which one
giant bubble, carved into the dust of space by massive stars, has
triggered the formation of smaller bubbles. Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin. › Full image and caption
In what may look to some like an
undersea image of coral and seaweed, a new image from NASA's Spitzer
Space Telescope is showing the birth and death of stars. Image credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin. › Full image and caption
There are nearly 200 galaxies within
the marked circles in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Wisconsin. › Full image and caption
PASADENA, Calif. -- New views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show
blooming stars in our Milky Way galaxy's more barren territories, far
from its crowded core.
The images are part of the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey
Extraordinaire (Glimpse 360) project, which is mapping the celestial
topography of our galaxy. The map and a full, 360-degree view of the
Milky Way plane will be available later this year. Anyone with a
computer may view the Glimpse images and help catalog features.
We live in a spiral collection of stars that is mostly flat, like a
vinyl record, but it has a slight warp. Our solar system is located
about two-thirds of the way out from the Milky Way's center, in the
Orion Spur, an offshoot of the Perseus spiral arm. Spitzer's infrared
observations are allowing researchers to map the shape of the galaxy and
its warp with the most precision yet.
While Spitzer and other telescopes have created mosaics of the galaxy's
plane looking in the direction of its center before, the region behind
us, with its sparse stars and dark skies, is less charted.
"We sometimes call this flyover country," said Barbara Whitney, an
astronomer from the University of Wisconsin at Madison who uses Spitzer
to study young stars. "We are finding all sorts of new star formation in
the lesser-known areas at the outer edges of the galaxy."
Whitney and colleagues are using the data to find new sites of youthful
stars. For example, they spotted an area near Canis Major with 30 or
more young stars sprouting jets of material, an early phase in their
lives. So far, the researchers have identified 163 regions containing
these jets in the Glimpse 360 data, with some of the young stars highly
clustered in packs and others standing alone.
Robert Benjamin is leading a University of Wisconsin team that uses
Spitzer to more carefully pinpoint the distances to stars in the
galaxy's hinterlands. The astronomers have noticed a distinct and rapid
drop-off of red giants, a type of older star, at the edge of the galaxy.
They are using this information to map the structure of the warp in the
galaxy's disk.
"With Spitzer, we can see out to the edge of the galaxy better than
before," said Robert Benjamin of the University of Wisconsin, who
presented the results Wednesday at the 222nd meeting of the American
Astronomical Society in Indianapolis. "We are hoping this will yield
some new surprises."
Thanks to Spitzer's infrared instruments, astronomers are capturing
improved images of those remote stellar lands. Data from NASA's
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) are helping fill in gaps in
the areas Spitzer did not cover. WISE was designed to survey the entire
sky twice in infrared light, completing the job in early 2011, while
Spitzer continues to probe the infrared sky in more detail. The results
are helping to canvas our galaxy, filling in blanks in the outer
expanses where not much is known.
Glimpse 360 already has mapped 130 degrees of the sky around the
galactic center. Four new views from the area looking away from the
galactic center are online at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/multimedia/index.html .
Members of the public continue scouring images from earlier Glimpse data
releases in search of cosmic bubbles indicative of hot, massive stars.
Astronomers' knowledge of how massive stars influence the formation of
other stars is benefitting from this citizen science activity, called
The Milky Way Project. For instance, volunteers identified a striking
multiple bubble structure in a star-forming region called W39. Followup
work by the researchers showed the smaller bubbles were spawned by a
larger bubble that had been carved out by massive stars.
"This crowdsourcing approach really works," said Charles Kerton of Iowa
State University at Ames, who also presented results. "We are examining
more of the hierarchical bubbles identified by the volunteers to
understand the prevalence of triggered star formation in our galaxy."
For more information about the Milky Way project and to learn how to participate, visit:
http://www.milkywayproject.org .
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer
Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science
Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Data are
archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at the Infrared
Processing and Analysis Center at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
For more information about Spitzer, visit http://spitzer.caltech.edu and http://www.nasa.gov/spitzer .
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Whitney.clavin@jpl.nasa.gov
J.D. Harrington 202-358-0321
Headquarters, Washington
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov
