To zoom in on a small corner of the cloud 7,500 light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope has captured an attractive stage in the development of baby stars.
This is called J025157.5 + 600606, and it is a (relatively) small swell in the largest Soul Nebula (also known as Westerhout 5) in the galaxy Cassiopeia.
But while the section of the cloud may seem insignificant in the vast nebula complex, it is a great place to learn about the birth of new stars.
This is because J025157.5 + 600606 shows a FrEGGs – free-floating evaporating gas globules.
Only FrEGGs were found A short time ago, They need a certain conditions.
You can find J025157.5 + 600606. (NASA / JBL-Caltech / UCLA)
Stars in the large clouds of stellar nurseries are formed from cold clusters of dense molecular hydrogen that fall under their gravitational pull, so the stars are located in dense, molecular clouds.
When a very large, hot star begins to shine, their intense ultraviolet radiation ionizes their birth cloud, creating a large, hot bubble of ionic gas. Stromgren sphere.
FrEGGs are dense clusters of cold gas that cluster in the Stromgren sphere, and many of them excite to form their own stars.
The boundary between the FrEGG and the sphere is seen as the glowing purple portion of the Hubble film because the outer layer of heat gas radiates from the hot nearby star.
This density loss means we can go inside and see new baby stars being born.
J 025157.5 + 600606. (ESA / Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai)
Because frEGGs are so dense, this process does not stop the star formation that forms inside. But it eventually blocks it, reducing the supply of feeding gas to the star that forms within it.
For this reason, stars born in FrEGGs have a relatively small mass compared to the larger O- and B-type stars that evaporate their gas.
That’s not a bad thing at all. Smaller and cooler stars have longer lifespans than their Sanctuary siblings. It is even possible that this is how our sun was born billions of years ago.
You can see the full size image of J025157.5 + 600606 and download the wallpaper sizes, On the Hubble Space Telescope website.
