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(ESA/Hubble & NASA; J. C. Tan; R. Fedriani; Judy
Schmidt) |
The most recent picture from the Hubble Space Telescope is
truly extraordinary.
Take a look at it. The audacity, the sheer audacity of it.
You were going about your everyday routine when Hubble came
along to tell you that our Universe is jaw-droppingly, mind-blowingly,
sickeningly amazing.
You're looking at a nebula in the constellation Gemini,
which is 4,900 light-years away. It's known as AFGL 5180, and it's part of the
Gem OB1 molecular cloud complex.
Stars are formed in such dense molecular clouds, and AFLG
5180 is no exception. It's illuminated from inside by a bright, young star
that's violently shaking the space around it as it expands, carving out large
cavities in the gas cloud.
A dense clump in a cloud of cool molecular gas is needed to
produce a baby star. This clump will begin to form a star if it collapses under
its own gravity. The material in the cloud around the proto star forms a disk
as it begins to rotate, spooling into the rising star, drawn inexorably by its
increasing gravitational pull.
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(ESA/Hubble & NASA; J. C. Tan; R. Fedriani; Judy
Schmidt) |
Two beams can be seen emanating from behind a fold in the
cloud, towards the top right and bottom left of the image, if you look closely.
These are one of the signs that the star is rising. As material is drawn in
closer to the star, it interacts with the complex magnetic field, resulting in
strong plasma jets shooting along the rotational axis.
These jets only last as long as material falls onto the
star, so they will fade away once the star stops rising.
Jets, in reality, are one of the mechanisms that prevent the
star from being ridiculously large: they drive material close to the star away
from the gravitational force, allowing it to escape. Once thermonuclear fusion
has begun in the star's core, material is forced away by stellar winds.
After the star has finished rising, what's left of the disk
will clump together to form planets, asteroids, and other solar system objects.
To learn more about these systems, we look at clouds like
AFLG 5180, but it can be difficult. The dusty clouds are so dense that it's
impossible to see what's going on inside.
That's where Hubble comes in: in addition to visible light,
the Wide Field Camera 3 can see infrared, which penetrates the dust and exposes
the gleaming treasure of young stars concealed inside.
And, of course, these photos enable you to take a break from
your day to marvel at the magnificence of the Universe we live in.
Read Original Article Here.
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