Twistin' by the Lagoon
Explanation:
The awesome spectacle of starbirth produces
extreme stellar winds and
intense energetic starlight -- bombarding dusty molecular clouds
inside the Lagoon Nebula
(
M8).
At least two long funnel shaped clouds, each roughly half a light-year
long, have apparently been formed by this activity.
They extend from the upper left of this
close-up of the bright area of the Lagoon known as
'the Hour Glass'.
Are these interstellar funnel clouds actually
swirling, twisting analogs to
Earthly tornados? It's possible.
As energy from nearby young hot stars, like the one at lower right,
pours into the cool dust and gas,
large temperature differences in adjoining regions can be
created generating shearing winds.
Confirmation of
tornado-like motions within the Lagoon's
stellar nursery could come
from new instruments
scheduled to be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
during
February's servicing mission.
This picture is a recently reprocessed HST image
made in 1995 as researchers
explored this nearby
(5,000 light-year distant) starforming region
which lies in the direction
of Sagittarius.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
