Hubble, Bubble, Toil and Star Formation

By Nancy Atkinson - July 13, 2010 at 5:19 AM UTC | Stars
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OK, that headline doesn't rhyme, but this incredible new Hubble image looks like a witch's cauldron of an exotic cosmic brew. It billows with huge clouds of gas and dust and is sprinkled with Eye of Newt, um…er, bright blue hot young stars. These dust clouds in NGC 2467 look like a murky, shadowy liquid, but they are actually star forming regions made mostly of hydrogen, perfect for bubbling up newborn stars. And your little dog, too.

NGC 2467 lies in the southern constellation of Puppis, approximately 13,000 light-years from Earth.

The picture was created from images taken with the Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys through three different filters (F550M, F660N and F658N, shown in blue, green and red respectively). These data were taken in 2004 but just released today.

This region looks somewhat like the Orion Nebula and the hot young stars that recently formed among this bubbling brew are emitting fierce ultraviolet radiation that is causing the whole scene to glow while also sculpting the environment and gradually eroding the gas clouds. Studies have shown that most of the radiation comes from the single hot and brilliant massive star just above the center of the image. Its fierce radiation has cleared the surrounding region and some of the next generation of stars are forming in the denser regions around the edge.

Source:

ESA Hubble

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com