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Credit & Copyright: Yizhou Zhang
Explanation:
It may look like a huge cosmic question mark, but the big question really is
how does the bright gas and dark dust tell this nebula's history of
star formation.
At the edge of a giant
molecular cloud toward the northern
constellation Cepheus, the glowing star forming region NGC 7822
lies about 3,000
light-years away.
Within the nebula, bright edges and dark shapes stand out in this
colorful and detailed skyscape.
The 9-panel mosaic, taken over 28 nights with a small telescope in Texas,
includes data from
narrowband filters,
mapping emission from atomic oxygen, hydrogen, and sulfur into blue,
green, and red hues.
The emission line and color combination has become well-known as the
Hubble palette.
The atomic emission is powered by
energetic radiation from the central hot stars.
Their powerful winds and radiation sculpt and erode
the denser pillar shapes and clear out a
characteristic cavity light-years across
the center of the natal cloud.
Stars could still be
forming inside the pillars by
gravitational collapse but as the pillars are eroded away,
any forming stars will ultimately be cut off from their reservoir of
star stuff.
This field of view
spans over 40 light-years across
at the estimated distance of NGC 7822.
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: emission nebula - star formation
Publications with words: emission nebula - star formation
See also: