Cepheus B • Cepheus C • V374 Ceph
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This image was compiled using data from NASA's Spitzer Space
Telescope using the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and the Multiband
Imaging Photometer (MIPS) during Spitzer's "cold" mission, before the
spacecraft's liquid helium coolant ran out in 2009. The colors
correspond with IRAC wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns
(cyan) and 8 microns (green), and 24 microns (red) from the MIPS
instrument.
The green-and-orange delta filling most of this image
is a nebula, or a cloud of gas and dust. This region formed from a much
larger cloud of gas and dust that has been carved away by radiation from
stars.
The bright region at the tip of the nebula is dust that
has been heated by the stars' radiation, which creates the surrounding
red glow. The white color is the combination of four colors (blue,
green, orange and red), each representing a different wavelength of
infrared light, which is invisible to human eyes.
The massive stars illuminating this region belong to a star cluster that extends above the white spot.
On
the left side of this image, a dark filament runs horizontally through
the green cloud. A smattering of baby stars (the red and yellow dots)
appear inside it. Known as Cepheus C, the area is a particularly dense
concentration of gas and dust where infant stars form. This region is
called Cepheus C because it lies in the constellation Cepheus, which can
be found near the constellation Cassiopeia. Cepheus-C is about 6
light-years long, and lies about 40 light-years from the bright spot at
the tip of the nebula.
The small, red hourglass shape just below
Cepheus C is V374 Ceph. Astronomers studying this massive star have
speculated that it might be surrounded by a nearly edge-on disk of dark,
dusty material. The dark cones extending to the right and left of the
star are a shadow of that disk.
The smaller nebula on the right
side of the image includes a blue star crowned by a small, red arc of
light. This "runaway star" is plowing through the gas and dust at a
rapid clip, creating a shock wave or "bow shock" in front of itself.
Some features identified in the annotated image are more visible in the IRAC data alone.
The
Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer
Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science
Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed
Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the
Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL
for NASA.
Source: JPL-Caltech/Spitzer
