Hidden secrets of a massive star-formation region

Credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS, SPIRE/Hi-GAL Project. Acknowledgement: UNIMAP / L. Piazzo, La Sapienza – Università di Roma; E. Schisano / G. Li Causi, IAPS/INAF, Italy

Stellar nurseries are cloudy and dusty places that shine brightly in infrared light. The G305 star-forming complex is no exception. It features a number of bright, intricate gas clouds heated by infant stars in their midst. In this spectacular image by ESA's Herschel space observatory, these star-forming hotspots stand out in a blue tone that contrasts with the red-brownish colour of cooler regions.

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Source / Image Courtesy

The OmegaCAM imager on ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile has captured a glittering view of the stellar nursery called Sharpless 29.

Many astronomical phenomena can be seen in the giant image, including cosmic dust and gas clouds that reflect, absorb, and re-emit the light of hot young stars within the nebula.

New images released by the European Southern Observatory reveal a stellar game of chicken.

However, the interaction between the pair of young stars happened about 500 years ago, though a satellite array recently captured light from the event's fallout.

The dazzling celestial fireworks are evidence of a stellar nursery ripping apart, flinging stars, gas, and dust deeper into space.

Using composite data from the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile, a team produced an image of the stellar nursery, called Orion Molecular Core 1.

The nursery is about 1,500 light years away from Earth.