IRAS 13481-6124 and its cradle
The object IRAS 13481-6124 (the bright "star" upper left), which consists of a young central star, about twenty times the mass of our Sun and five times its radius, surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon, is the first massive baby star for which astronomers could obtain an image of a dusty disc closely encircling it, providing direct evidence that massive stars do form in the same way as their smaller brethren òÀÔ and closing an enduring debate.
From archival images obtained by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope (seen here) as well as from observations done with the APEX 12-metre sub-millimetre telescope, astronomers discovered the presence of a jet, hinting at the presence of a disc. This was then confirmed by observations made with the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer.
Credit:ESO/Spitzer/NASA/JPL/S. Kraus
About the Image
Id: | eso1029c |
Type: | Observation |
Release date: | 14 July 2010, 19:00 |
Related releases: | eso1029 |
Size: | 1425 x 1503 px |
About the Object
Name: | IRAS 13481-6124 |
Type: | • Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar Object • Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk |
Distance: | 10000 light years |
Constellation: | Centaurus |
Category: | • Stars |
Wallpapers
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 13 50 48.49 |
Position (Dec): | -61° 45' 41.77" |
Field of view: | 28.98 x 30.57 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 0.3° right of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
---|---|---|
Infrared Near-IR | 3.6 μm |
Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC |
Infrared Mid-IR | 4.5 μm |
Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC |
Infrared Mid-IR | 5.8 μm |
Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC |
Infrared Mid-IR | 8.0 μm |
Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC |
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