Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Before they were stars
by Staff Writers
Boston MA (SPX) Jan 12, 2012


The Cygnus-X star-forming region is located 4,600 light-years from Earth and spans more than 600 light-years. It contains 10 times as much gas as the Orion Nebula - enough to make over three million suns. This infrared photograph from the Spitzer Space Telescope reveals more than a thousand protostars in the earliest stages of forming. Light of 3.6 microns is color-coded blue: 4.5-micron light is blue-green; 8.0-micron light is green; and 24-micron light is red. Credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / J. Hora (CfA).

The stars we see today weren't always as serene as they appear, floating alone in the dark of night. Most stars, likely including our sun, grew up in cosmic turmoil - as illustrated in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The image shows one of the most active and turbulent regions of star birth in our galaxy, a region called Cygnus X. The choppy cloud of gas and dust lies 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Cygnus X was named by radio astronomers, since it is one of the brightest radio regions in the Milky Way. (It should not be confused with the black hole Cygnus X-1.)

Cygnus X, which spans an area of the sky larger than 100 full moons, is home to thousands of massive stars, and many more stars around the size of our sun or smaller. Spitzer has captured an infrared view of the entire region, which is bubbling with star formation.

"Spitzer captured the range of activities happening in this violent cloud of stellar birth," said Joe Hora of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who is the principal investigator of the research. "We see bubbles carved out from massive stars, pillars of new stars, dark filaments lined with stellar embryos and more."

The majority of stars are thought to form in huge star-forming regions like Cygnus X. Over time, the stars dissipate and migrate away from each other. It's possible that our sun was once packed tightly together with other, more massive stars in a similarly chaotic, though less extreme, region.

The turbulent star-forming clouds are marked with bubbles, or cavities, which are carved out by radiation and winds from the most massive of stars. Those massive stars tear the cloud material to shreds, terminating the formation of some stars, while triggering the birth of others.

"One of the questions we want to answer is how such a violent process can lead to both the death and birth of new stars," said Sean Carey, a team member from NASA's Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology. "We still don't know exactly how stars form in such disruptive environments."

Infrared data from Spitzer is helping to answer questions like these by giving astronomers a window into the dustier parts of the complex. Infrared light travels through dust, whereas visible light is blocked. For example, embryonic stars blanketed by dust pop out in the Spitzer observations.

In some cases the young stars are embedded in finger-shaped pillars of dust, which line the hollowed-out cavities and point toward the central, massive stars. In other cases, these stars can be seen lining very dark, snake-like filaments of thick dust.

Another question scientists hope to answer is how these pillars and filaments are related.

"We have evidence that the massive stars are triggering the birth of new ones in the dark filaments, in addition to the pillars, but we still have more work to do," said Hora. "The biggest results from this survey are yet to come."

.


Related Links
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Stellar Chemistry, The Universe And All Within It






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Chandra Finds Largest Galaxy Cluster in Early Universe
Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 11, 2012
An exceptional galaxy cluster, the largest seen in the distant universe, has been found using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the National Science Foundation-funded Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile. Officially known as ACT-CL J0102-4915, the galaxy cluster has been nicknamed "El Gordo" ("the big one" or "the fat one" in Spanish) by the researchers who discovered it. The name ... read more


STELLAR CHEMISTRY
'Mini moons' may surround Earth

Rare Moon mineral found in Australia

Ecliptic Shoots for Moon at End of a Record Year

NASA's Twin Grail Spacecraft Reunite in Lunar Orbit

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Stranded Mars probe to crash into ocean Sunday: Russia

Russia was well aware of Phobos-Grunt mission risks

The Challenges of Building A House on Mars

'Greeley Haven' is Winter Workplace for Mars Rover

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Boeing begins NASA solar electric propulsion study

Solid state Swiss Army Knife can save digital lives

High-tech gadget show opens doors in Vegas

Google sees Android enhancing home appliances

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
China launches Ziyuan III satellite

Spying on Tiangong

China's space ambitions ally glory with pragmatism

Why The X-37B Is Not Spying On Tiangong

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
ISS Team Undertakes 'EPIC' Event

Photographing the International Space Station from Your Own Backyard

New crew arrives at international space station

NASA 'Smart SPHERES' Tested on ISS

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Canaveral has busy 2012 launch schedule

China to launch Bolivian satellite in 2013: Chinese Ambassador

Ariane 5, Soyuz, Vega: Three world-changing launch vehicles

Satellites: Europe's Arianespace sets 13 launches for 2012

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
Kepler Mission Finds Three Smallest Exoplanets

Kepler discovery establishes new class of planetary systems

Planet Population is Plentiful

Scientists searching for Earth-type planets should consider two-star system

STELLAR CHEMISTRY
First Intel-powered smartphone to debut in China

ARISSat-1/KEDR amateur radio satellite deorbits

Nokia declares war in US smartphone market

Salk scientists map the frontiers of vision




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement