The star-forming cloud RCW 34 in the constellation of Vela
Around the star-formation region Gum 19 (RCW 34)
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In the brightest region of this glowing nebula called RCW 34, gas is heated dramatically by young stars and expands through the surrounding cooler gas. Once the heated hydrogen reaches the borders of the gas cloud, it bursts outwards into the vacuum like the contents of an uncorked champagne bottle — this process is referred to as champagne flow. But the young star-forming region RCW 34 has more to offer than a few bubbles; there seem to have been multiple episodes of star formation within the same cloud.
This new image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope
(VLT) in Chile shows a spectacular red cloud of glowing hydrogen gas
behind a collection of blue foreground stars. Within RCW 34 — located in
the southern constellation of Vela — a group of massive young stars hide in the brightest region of the cloud [1].
These stars have a dramatic effect on the nebula. Gas exposed to strong
ultraviolet radiation — as occurs in the heart of this nebula — becomes
ionised, meaning that the electrons have escaped the hydrogen atoms.
Hydrogen is treasured by cosmic photographers because it glows
brightly in the characteristic red colour that distinguishes many
nebulae and allows them to create beautiful images with bizarre shapes.
It is also the raw material of dramatic phenomena such as champagne
flow. But ionised hydrogen also has an important astronomical role: it
is an indicator of star-forming regions. Stars are born from collapsing
gas clouds and therefore abundant in regions with copious amounts of
gas, like RCW 34. This makes the nebula particularly interesting to
astronomers studying stellar birth and evolution.
Vast amounts of dust within the nebula block the view of the inner
workings of the stellar nursery deeply embedded in these clouds. RCW 34
is characterised by extremely high extinction, meaning that almost all
of the visible light from this region is absorbed before it reaches
Earth. Despite hiding away from direct view, astronomers can use infrared telescopes, to peer through the dust and study the nest of embedded stars.
Looking behind the red colour reveals that there are a lot of young
stars in this region with masses only a fraction of that of the Sun.
These seem to clump around older, more massive stars at the centre,
while only a few are distributed in the outskirts. This distribution has
led astronomers to believe that there have been different episodes of
star formation within the cloud. Three gigantic stars formed in the
first event that then triggered the formation of the less massive stars
in their vicinity [2].
This image uses data from the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS) instrument attached to the VLT, which were acquired as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme [3].
Notes
[1] RCW 34 is also known as Gum 19 and is centred on the brilliant young star called V391 Velorum.
[3] The ESO Cosmic Gems programme
is an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing
or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of
education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope
time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected
may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to
astronomers through ESO’s science archive.
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Richard Hook
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
Source: ESO
