The Cave Nebula in Infrared from Spitzer
Explanation:
What's happening in and around the Cave Nebula?
To help find out, NASA's orbiting
Spitzer Space Telescope looked into this
optically-dark star-forming region
in four colors of
infrared light.
The
Cave Nebula, cataloged as Sh2-155, is quite bright
in infrared,
revealing details not only of internal pillars of gas and dust, but of the illuminating
star cluster too -
all near the top of the image.
The red glow around the
Cave's entrance
is created by dust heated by bright young stars.
To the right is
Cepheus B, a star cluster that formed previously
from the same cloud of gas and dust.
Other interesting stars of Cepheus come to light in infrared as well, including those
illuminating an even younger nebula toward the image bottom, and a
runaway star pushing a
bow shock, tinged in red near the image center.
This region spans about 50
light years
and lies about 2,500 light years toward the constellation of the King of Aethiopia
(Cepheus).
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Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
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NASA Official: Jay Norris.
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A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
