welcome, little precious
Spitzer's infrared eyes yielded this spectacular image that astronomers have dubbed the "Mountains of Creation." The star-forming region W5 shown here resembles Hubble's famous "Pillars of Creation," but on a much larger scale. This cloud of cool gas and dust, shining red in this color-coded image, has been sculpted by radiation and winds from a hot, massive star above the field of view.
The largest of the pillars seen by Spitzer entombs hundreds of never-before-seen embryonic stars, and the second largest contains dozens.
"We believe that the star clusters lighting up the tips of the pillars are essentially the offspring of the region's single, massive star," said Lori Allen, lead investigator of the new observations from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "It appears that radiation and winds from the massive star triggered new stars to form."
Spitzer's infrared eyes yielded this spectacular image that astronomers have dubbed the "Mountains of Creation." The star-forming region W5 shown here resembles Hubble's famous "Pillars of Creation," but on a much larger scale. This cloud of cool gas and dust, shining red in this color-coded image, has been sculpted by radiation and winds from a hot, massive star above the field of view.
The largest of the pillars seen by Spitzer entombs hundreds of never-before-seen embryonic stars, and the second largest contains dozens.
"We believe that the star clusters lighting up the tips of the pillars are essentially the offspring of the region's single, massive star," said Lori Allen, lead investigator of the new observations from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). "It appears that radiation and winds from the massive star triggered new stars to form."