Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On December 10, 2011 @ 10:09 am In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]Image Credit & Copyright [2]: Adam Block [3], Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter [4], University of Arizona [5]
Explanation: The cosmic brush [6] of star formation composed this alluring mix [7] of dust and dark nebulae. Cataloged as Sh2-239 and LDN 1551, the region [8] lies near the southern end of the Taurus molecular cloud [9] complex some 450 light-years distant. Stretching for nearly 3 light-years, the canvas abounds with signs of embedded young stellar objects driving dynamic outflows into the surrounding medium. Included near the center of the frame, a compact, tell-tale red jet of shocked hydrogen gas is near the position of infrared source IRS5, known to be a system of protostars surrounded [10] by dust disks. Just below it are the broader, brighter wings of HH 102, one of the region’s [11] many Herbig-Haro objects, nebulosities associated with newly born stars [12]. Estimates indicate that the star forming LDN 1551 region [13] contains a total amount of material equivalent to about 50 times the mass of the Sun.
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/12/10/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-96/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/sh2_239block.jpg
[2] Copyright: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[3] Adam Block: http://www.caelumobservatory.com/index.html
[4] Mt. Lemmon SkyCenter: http://skycenter.arizona.edu/
[5] University of Arizona: http://www.as.arizona.edu/
[6] brush: http://www.moma.org/collection/theme.php?theme_id=10097
[7] composed this alluring mix: http://skycenter.arizona.edu/gallery/Nebulae/sh2_239
[8] LDN 1551, the region: http://www.naoj.org/Topics/2009/08/03/index.html
[9] Taurus molecular cloud: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111117.html
[10] system of protostars surrounded: http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2006/multidisk/
[11] of the region’s: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ApJ...694..582H
[12] newly born stars: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap111027.html
[13] star forming LDN 1551 region: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0512351
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