Stellar Nursery Blooms into View
The star formation region NGC 6559 in the constellation of Sagittarius
The rich surroundings of Sharpless 29
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ESOcast 142 Light: Stellar Nursery Blooms into View (4K UHD)
Zooming in on the star-forming region Sharpless 29
Panning across the VST’s view of Sharpless 29
The OmegaCAM camera on ESO’s VLT Survey
Telescope has captured this glittering view of the stellar nursery
called Sharpless 29. Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in this
giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb,
and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula.
The region of sky pictured is listed in the Sharpless catalogue of H II regions: interstellar clouds of ionised gas, rife with star formation. Also known as Sh 2-29, Sharpless 29 is located about 5500 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), next door to the larger Lagoon Nebula. It contains many astronomical wonders, including the highly active star formation site of NGC 6559, the nebula at the centre of the image.
This central nebula is Sharpless 29’s most striking
feature. Though just a few light-years across, it showcases the havoc
that stars can wreak when they form within an interstellar cloud. The
hot young stars in this image are no more than two million years old and
are blasting out streams of high-energy radiation. This energy heats up
the surrounding dust and gas, while their stellar winds
dramatically erode and sculpt their birthplace. In fact, the nebula
contains a prominent cavity that was carved out by an energetic binary star system. This cavity is expanding, causing the interstellar material to pile up and create the reddish arc-shaped border.
When interstellar dust and gas are bombarded with
ultraviolet light from hot young stars, the energy causes them to shine
brilliantly. The diffuse red glow permeating this image comes from the emission of hydrogen gas, while the shimmering blue light is caused by reflection and scattering off small dust particles. As well as emission and reflection, absorption
takes place in this region. Patches of dust block out the light as it
travels towards us, preventing us from seeing the stars behind it, and
smaller tendrils of dust create the dark filamentary structures within
the clouds.
The rich and diverse environment of Sharpless 29 offers
astronomers a smorgasbord of physical properties to study. The triggered
formation of stars, the influence of the young stars upon dust and gas,
and the disturbance of magnetic fields can all be observed and examined
in this single area.
But young, massive stars live fast and die young. They will
eventually explosively end their lives in a supernova, leaving behind
rich debris of gas and dust. In tens of millions of years, this will be
swept away and only an open cluster of stars will remain.
Sharpless 29 was observed with ESO’s OmegaCAM on the VLT Survey Telescope
(VST) at Cerro Paranal in Chile. OmegaCAM produces images that cover an
area of sky more than 300 times greater than the largest field of view
imager of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope,
and can observe over a wide range of wavelengths from the ultraviolet
to the infrared. Its hallmark feature is its ability to capture the very
red spectral line H-alpha, created when the electron inside a hydrogen
atom loses energy, a prominent occurrence in a nebula like Sharpless 29.
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