Email a Friend
Printer Friendly
Slashdot It!
Submit to Reddit
Add to Facebook

The Stars behind the Curtain

February 04, 2010

ESO is releasing a magnificent VLT image of the giant stellar nursery surrounding NGC 3603, in which stars are continuously being born. Embedded in this scenic nebula is one of the most luminous and most compact clusters of young, massive stars in our Milky Way, which therefore serves as an excellent "local" analogue of very active star-forming regions in other galaxies. The cluster also hosts the most massive star to be "weighed" so far.

Image: http://www.eso.org/public/archives/images/screen/eso1005a.jpg

NGC 3603 is a starburst region: a cosmic factory where stars form frantically from the nebula's extended clouds of gas and dust. Located 22 000 light-years away from the Sun, it is the closest region of this kind known in our galaxy, providing astronomers with a local test bed for studying intense star formation processes, very common in other galaxies, but hard to observe in detail because of their great distance from us.

The nebula owes its shape to the intense light and winds coming from the young, massive stars which lift the curtains of gas and clouds revealing a multitude of glowing suns. The central cluster of stars inside NGC 3603 harbours thousands of stars of all sorts (eso9946): the majority have masses similar to or less than that of our Sun, but most spectacular are several of the very massive stars that are close to the end of their lives. Several blue supergiant stars crowd into a volume of less than a cubic light-year, along with three so-called Wolf-Rayet stars - extremely bright and massive stars that are ejecting vast amounts of material before finishing off in glorious explosions known as supernovae. Using another recent set of observations performed with the SINFONI instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have confirmed that one of these stars is about 120 times more massive than our Sun, standing out as the most massive star known so far in the Milky Way [1].

The clouds of NGC 3603 provide us with a family picture of stars in different stages of their life, with gaseous structures that are still growing into stars, newborn stars, adult stars and stars nearing the end of their life. All these stars have roughly the same age, a million years, a blink of an eye compared to our five billion year-old Sun and Solar System. The fact that some of the stars have just started their lives while others are already dying is due to their extraordinary range of masses: high-mass stars, being very bright and hot, burn through their existence much faster than their less massive, fainter and cooler counterparts.

The newly released image, obtained with the FORS instrument attached to the VLT at Cerro Paranal, Chile, portrays a wide field around the stellar cluster and reveals the rich texture of the surrounding clouds of gas and dust.
Notes

[1] The star, NGC 3603-A1, is an eclipsing system of two stars orbiting around each other in 3.77 days. The most massive star has an estimated mass of 116 solar masses, while its companion has a mass of 89 solar masses.
More information

ESO, the European Southern Observatory, is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive astronomical observatory. It is supported by 14 countries: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and VISTA, the largest survey telescope. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning a 42-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

ESO

Related Nebula Current Events and Nebula News Articles

Nebula Current Events and Nebula News RSS

Herschel: The first science highlights
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing a special feature devoted to the first science results obtained with Herschel, an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA.

Hubble snaps sharp image of cosmic concoction
Strangely shaped dust clouds, resembling spilled liquids, are silhouetted against a colourful background of glowing gas in this newly released Hubble image. The star-forming region NGC 2467 is a vast cloud of gas - mostly hydrogen - that serves as an incubator for new stars. Some of these youthful stars have emerged from the dense clouds where they were born and now shine brightly, hot and blue in this picture, but many others remain hidden.

Newborn Stars Discovered in Dark Cosmic Cloud
A wave of massive star formation appears poised to begin within a mysterious, dark cloud in the Milky Way.

Hubble captures bubbles and baby stars
A spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image - one of the largest ever released of a star-forming region - highlights N11, part of a complex network of gas clouds and star clusters within our neighbouring galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud. This region of energetic star formation is one of the most active in the nearby Universe.

Death of a star in 3 dimensions
Massive stars end their lives in gigantic explosions, so called supernovae, and can become - for a short time - brighter than a whole galaxy, which is made up of billions of stars.

Hubble catches heavyweight runaway star speeding from 30 Doradus
A heavy runaway star rushing away from a nearby stellar nursery at more than 400 000 kilometres per hour, a speed that would get you to the Moon and back in two hours.

Starry-eyed Hubble celebrates 20 Years of awe and discovery
The best recognised, longest-lived and most prolific space observatory zooms past a milestone of 20 years of operation. On 24 April 1990, the Space Shuttle and crew of STS-31 were launched to deploy the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope into a low-Earth orbit. What followed was one of the most remarkable sagas of the space age.

VISTA Captures Celestial Cat's Hidden Secrets
The Cat's Paw Nebula, NGC 6334, is a huge stellar nursery, the birthplace of hundreds of massive stars. In a magnificent new ESO image taken with the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, the glowing gas and dust clouds obscuring the view are penetrated by infrared light and some of the Cat's hidden young stars are revealed.

Baby stars in the Rosette cloud
Herschel's latest image reveals the formation of previously unseen large stars, each one up to ten times the mass of our Sun. These are the stars that will influence where and how the next generation of stars are formed. The image is a new release of 'OSHI', ESA's Online Showcase of Herschel Images.

The Light and Dark Face of a Star-Forming Nebula
Today, ESO is unveiling an image of the little known Gum 19, a faint nebula that, in the infrared, appears dark on one half and bright on the other. On one side hot hydrogen gas is illuminated by a supergiant blue star called V391 Velorum.

More Nebula Current Events and Nebula News Articles

	Heavy Psych by Nebula LA-based Nebula have returned to Tee Pee Records with this new album, which exhibits an inebriating wonder world of inherent ingenuity. The band strays leagues away from the province of processed, microchip-generated instrumentals. They're the minimalists of music the way rock began. No big expensive effects racks, pop-up drummers, or voice manipulators. They're vintage and they're proud!
	NASA Hubble Space Posters, Omega/Swan Nebula by Great Mind Inc Incredible Images From NASA's Hubble Space Project! The posters are printed on high quality photo quality stock, and measure approximately 23 by 28 inches. Most popular Hubble posters: V838 Monocerotis,Abell 1689,The Tadpole,The Lure of the Rings,The Sombrero Galaxy, Antennae Galaxies, Evaporating Planet,Omega-Swan Nebula, Helix Nebula ,Pencil Nebula
	To the Center by Nebula 1999 debut for Sub Pop by metal band featuring ex-mem bers of Fu Manchu, their second album for overall. The influences of Hendrix, MC5 & Blue Cheer can be heard throughout the record's 12 tracks.
	Heavy Psych Nebula (Primary Contributor)
	BBC Peel Sessions by Nebula
	Nebula Awards Showcase 2010 by Bill Fawcett (Editor) The year's best science fiction and fantasy in one essential volume. An annual commemoration, the Nebula Awards are presented by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to those members whose imaginations refine and re-define the infinite storytelling possibilities found within the genre. The Nebula Awards Showcase represents the best of the best in fantasy in one indispensible collection. This year's compilation includes stories by: •Ursula K. LeGuin •Catherine Asaro •John Kessel •Nina Kiriki Hoffman •Harry Harrison, this year's Grandmaster
	Orion Nebula (Colorful) Art Poster Print - 17x11 by Poster Revolution Orion Nebula (Colorful) Art Poster Print - 17x11
	Charged by Nebula Nebula are the full embodiment of heavy-psych rock. The band's second full-length Charged, is a mixture of high energy electric blues, lead-footed psychedelic stomps and even some lighter acoustic fare. Electricity is the key. Guitars are the weapon. Digipack. 2001 release.
	Apollo by Nebula 14 tracks of Stoner Rock/Metal from California, 2006.
	Electric Novelties: Plasma Nebula Ball by Glow Electrifying! Exciting nebulous glow of electrons light the inside of this popular decorative light. Place your hand on its smooth glass surface. The unchained blue lighting is drawn to your touch. It gathers harmlessly about your palm and fingers, creating beautiful swirling pink-red formations that follow your every move. Reacts to your voice and music! The whole unit stands 8.5 inches tall, and the bulb is approx. 4.5 inches tall. 120 volts. Sliding switch controls On/Off/Audio.