- Original Caption Released with Image:
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This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what
astronomers are referring to as a "snake" (upper left) and its surrounding
stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick,
sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact,
astronomers say the "snake's belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the
process of forming.
The galactic creepy crawler to the right of the snake is another thick
cloud core, in which additional burgeoning massive stars might be lurking.
The colorful regions below the two cloud cores are less dense cloud
material, in which dust has been heated by starlight and glows with
infrared light. Yellow and orange dots throughout the image are monstrous
developing stars; the red star on the "belly" of the snake is 20 to 50
times as massive as our sun. The blue dots are foreground stars.
The red ball at the bottom left is a "supernova remnant," the remains of
massive star that died in a fiery blast. Astronomers speculate that
radiation and winds from the star before it died, in addition to a shock
wave created when it exploded, might have played a role in creating the
snake.
Spitzer was able to spot the two black cloud cores using its heat-seeking
infrared vision. The objects are hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky
Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes. Because their heat, or
infrared light, can sneak through the dust, they first showed up in
infrared images from past missions. The cloud cores are so thick with dust
that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of them,
you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky. Now, that's
spooky!
Spitzer's new view of the region provides the best look yet at the massive
embryonic stars hiding inside the snake. Astronomers say these
observations will ultimately help them better understand how massive stars
form. By studying the clustering and range of masses of the stellar
embryos, they hope to determine if the stars were born in the same way
that our low-mass sun was formed - out of a collapsing cloud of gas and
dust - or by another mechanism in which the environment plays a larger
role.
The snake is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation
Sagittarius.
This false-color image is a composite of infrared data taken by Spitzer's
infrared array camera and multiband imaging photometer. Blue represents
3.6-micron light; green shows light of 8 microns; and red is 24-micron
light.
- Image Credit:
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NASA/JPL-Caltech
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