. 24/7 Space News .
Looking Down The Mouth Of An Interstellar Cavern


Washington DC (SPX) Jan 06, 2006
A storm of billowing clouds blown by the winds from massive stars, and set aglow by their light, is the focus of a striking image released today by Gemini Observatory.

Known as the N44 superbubble complex, this cloudy tempest is dominated by a vast bubble about 325 by 250 light-years across. A cluster of massive stars inside the cavern has cleared away gas to form a distinctive mouth-shaped hollow shell.

While astronomers do not agree on exactly how this bubble has evolved for up to the past 10 million years, they do know that the central cluster of massive stars is responsible for the cloud's unusual appearance. It is likely that the explosive death of one or more of the cluster's most massive and short-lived stars played a key role in the formation of the large bubble.

"This region is like a giant laboratory providing us with a glimpse into many unique phenomena," said Sally Oey of the University of Michigan, who has studied this object extensively. "Observations from space have even revealed x-ray-emitting gas escaping from this superbubble, and while this is expected, this is the only object of its kind where we have actually seen it happening."

One of the mysteries surrounding this object points to the role that supernova explosions (marking the destruction of the most massive of the central cluster's stars) could have played in sculpting the cloud.

Philip Massey of Lowell Observatory, who studied this region along with Oey, adds "When we look at the speed of the gases in this cloud we find inconsistencies in the size of the bubble and the expected velocities of the winds from the central cluster of massive stars. Supernovae, the ages of the central stars, or the orientation and shape of the cloud might explain this, but the bottom line is that there's still lots of exciting science to be done here and these new images will undoubtedly help."

The Gemini data used to produce this image are being released to the astronomical community for further research and follow- up analysis. The image provides one of the most detailed views ever obtained of this relatively large region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to the Milky Way, located some 150,000 light- years away and visible from the Southern Hemisphere.

The images captured light of specific colors that reveal the compression of material and the presence of gases (primarily excited hydrogen gas and lesser amounts of oxygen and "shocked" sulfur) in the cloud.

Multiple smaller bubbles appear in the image as bulbous growths clinging to the central superbubble. Most of these regions were probably formed as part of the same process that shaped the central cluster. Their formation could also have been "sparked" by compression as the central stars pushed the surrounding gas outward. Our view into this cavern could really be like looking through an elongated tube, which lends the object its monstrous mouth-like appearance.

The images used to produce the color composite were obtained with the Gemini Multi-object Spectrograph (GMOS) at the Gemini South Telescope on Cerro Pach�n in Chile. The color image was produced by Travis Rector of the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Related Links
Gemini Observatory
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express



Memory Foam Mattress Review
Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News


There Is More To Starlight Than Meets The Eye
Clemson SC (SPX) Jan 06, 2006
Where do elements, such as iron in our blood or calcium in our bones, come from? Astronomers say they come from thermonuclear reactions in hundreds of millions of stars that burn at high temperatures in our galaxy.







  • Microbes Survive Firey Plunge By Columbia
  • Spicing Up Space Meals
  • SpaceDev Appoints New Chief Executive Officer And Vice Chairman
  • ZeroG Aerospace Launches Affordable Space Tourism for the Masses

  • Mars Exploration Rovers Advance Understanding Of The Red Planet
  • Bird's Eye View Of Opportunity At Erebus
  • Spirit's Neighborhood In Columbia Hills
  • Spirit's Solar Panels Still Shiny After All This Time

  • ILS to Launch ASTRA 1KR in 2006
  • Telematic Solutions Awarded EUR8Mn Contract For Vega Pad Work In Kourou,
  • Telematic Solutions Awarded EUR8Mn Contract For Vega Pad Work In Kourou,
  • ILS Atlas V Gets Go Ahead To Launch Defense Weather Satellite

  • NG Ships First Advanced Tech Microwave Sounder Flight Instrument To NASA
  • The Topex/Poseidon Oceanography Mission Ends
  • Intersat Introduces Virtual Reality Flight Simulator
  • Radar Sat Service Checks Stability Of Africa's Largest Artificial Hole

  • Scientists Show Pluto To Be Colder Than It Should Be
  • Astronomers Measure The Most Distant Moon
  • New Horizons Launch Vehicle Fully Assembled For Voyage To Pluto
  • The Ice Dwarf Cometh

  • Looking Down The Mouth Of An Interstellar Cavern
  • There Is More To Starlight Than Meets The Eye
  • Galaxy's Neighboring Spiral Arm Is Closer Than Thought
  • Partial Ingredients For DNA And Protein Found Around Star

  • Apollo Chronicles
  • An Explosion On The Moon
  • SMART 1 Uses New Imaging Technique In Lunar Orbit
  • Moon Storms

  • SiRFstarIII Featured in TomToms Innovative Portable Navigation Product
  • EGNOS Demonstration In South Africa
  • Europe Opens Up Civil Navigation System With Galileo Satellite
  • British Built Navigation Satellite Is First For Europe

  • The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights 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 SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement