Cygnus X: The Inner Workings of a Nearby Star Factory
Explanation:
How do stars form?
To help study this complex issue, astronomers took a deep
infrared
image of
Cygnus X,
the largest known star forming region in the entire
Milky Way Galaxy.
The
above recently-released image was taken in 2009 by the orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope and digitally translated into
colors humans can see,
with the hottest regions colored the most blue.
Visible are large bubbles of hot gas inflated by the
winds of massive stars soon after they form.
Current models posit that these expanding
bubbles sweep up gas and sometimes even collide,
frequently creating regions dense enough to gravitationally collapse into yet more
stars.
The star factory
Cygnus-X spans over 600 light years, contains over a million times the mass
of our Sun, and
shines prominently on wide angle
infrared panoramas of the night sky.
Cygnus X lies 4,500 light years away towards the
constellation of
the Swan (Cygnus).
In a few million years,
calm will likely be restored and a large
open cluster of stars will remain --
which itself will disperse over the next 100 million years.
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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.
