A star is born: How stellar newborn illuminates a hidden nebula
Source: Christian Science Monitor
A star is born: How stellar newborn illuminates a hidden nebula
By Corey Fedde, Staff FEBRUARY 11, 2016
A luminous newborn star has been captured by the European Southern Observatory.
On Wednesday, the ESO released a stellar image of a newly formed star illuminating the cosmic sky as its light reflects off surrounding clouds. Captured by the ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, the image depicts cosmic diffusion effect caused by the clouds.
The large swath of illumination visible in the image above does not resemble the ordinary light of a star. Dust in the clouds surrounding new star HD 97300 cause the light to be diffused, “like a car headlight in enveloping fog,” according to the press release. The illuminated portion is referred to as reflection nebula IC 2631.
Reflection nebulas have long been favorite subjects for space agency cameras. The reflection nebulas are known for not emitting any of their own light, being illuminated purely from other, embedded sources, usually young stars, according to the NASA press release from 2008 showing off a spectacular photograph of the reflection nebula NGC 1999 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0211/A-star-is-born-How-stellar-newborn-illuminates-a-hidden-nebula
