IRAS 20324: Evaporating Protostar
Explanation:
Will this caterpillar-shaped interstellar cloud one day evolve into a butterfly-shaped
nebula?
No one is sure.
What is sure is that
IRAS 20324+4057,
on the inside, is contracting to form a new star.
On the outside, however,
energetic winds
are blowing and energetic light is eroding away much of the gas
and
dust that might have been used to form the star.
Therefore, no one is sure what mass the
resulting
star will have, and, therefore, no one knows the fate of this star.
Were the winds and light to whittle the
protostar
down near the mass of the Sun, the outer atmosphere of this new star may one day
expand into a
planetary nebula,
possibly even one that
looks like a butterfly.
Alternatively, if the
stellar cocoon
retains enough mass, a massive star will form that will one day explode in a
supernova.
The eroding
protostellar
nebula IRAS 20324+4057 spans about one light year and lies about 4,500
light years
away
toward
the constellation of the Swan
(
Cygnus).
The
above image of IRAS 20324+4057 was taken with the
Hubble Space Telescope in 2006 but released last week.
The battle between gravity and light
will likely
take over 100,000 years to play out, but
clever observations and deductions may yet yield
telling clues well before that.
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.
