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> Young stars in the nebula NGC 6729

Young stars in the nebula NGC 6729

author: ESO/Novapix

reference: a-neb67-26015

Image Size 300 DPI: 18 * 18 cm

This very detailed false-colour image from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the dramatic effects of very young stars on the dust and gas from which they were born in the star-forming region NGC 6729. The baby stars are invisible in this picture, being hidden behind dust clouds at the upper left of the picture, but material they are ejecting is crashing into the surroundings at speeds of that can be as high as one million kilometres per hour. These shocks cause the gas to shine and create the strangely coloured glowing arcs and blobs known as Herbig–Haro objects. In this view the Herbig–Haro objects form two lines marking out the probable directions of ejected material. One stretches from the upper left to the lower centre, ending in the bright, circular group of glowing blobs and arcs at the lower centre. The other starts near the left upper edge of the picture and extends towards the centre right. The peculiar scimitar-shaped bright feature at the upper left is probably mostly due to starlight being reflected from dust and is not a Herbig–Haro object. This picture was taken by the FORS1 instrument and records the scene in the light of glowing hydrogen and sulphur.

Keywords for this photo:

2011 - ASTRONOMY - CORONA AUSTRALIS - HERBIG-HARO - NEBULA - NGC 6729 - STAR - STAR FORMATION - VERY LARGE TELESCOPE - VLT - YOUNG STAR -