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Credit & Copyright: Mark McCaughrean and Morten Andersen
(AIP),
European Southern Observatory
Explanation:
The head of an interstellar gas and dust cloud is shown
here in false-color,
a near-infrared view
recorded by astronomers hunting for stars within
M16's
Eagle Nebula.
Made famous in a
1995
Hubble image
of the 7,000 light-year
distant star forming region,
the pillar-shaped cloud's surface
was seen to be covered with finger-like evaporating
gaseous globules (EGGs).
The near-infrared image
penetrates the obscuring dust cloud's
edges.
But the cloud's core appears dark and
opaque, even at these
relatively long wavelengths.
Still, this image, made with
ESO's
Antu telescope,
reveals
a massive, bright yellow star
not directly detected in the
visible light
Hubble data.
This very young star lights up the
small bluish nebula with a dark, twisted central
stripe, just above it.
Below and to its right are several much fainter, less massive stars
also not seen in visible light - newborn stars which lie within
the Eagle's EGGs.
These newborn stars may have already been collapsing, forming
from material inside the nebula before
the intense radiation from other,
nearby, emerging hot stars
eroded and sculpted the dramatic pillars and EGGs.
In any event, as the dusty clouds are eroded
away, stars still forming will be cutoff from their reservoir
of star stuff.
Further growth and even the development of
planetary systems
will likely be seriously affected.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: star formation - Eagle Nebula - M 16
Publications with words: star formation - Eagle Nebula - M 16
See also: