Hubble sees a cosmic caterpillar

Esahubble_opo1335a_1024

esahubble_opo1335a August 30th, 2013

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and IPHAS

This light-year-long knot of interstellar gas and dust resembles a caterpillar on its way to a feast. But the meat of the story is not only what this cosmic caterpillar eats for lunch, but also what's eating it. Harsh winds from extremely bright stars are blasting ultraviolet radiation at this "wanna-be" star and sculpting the gas and dust into its long shape. The culprits are 65 of the hottest, brightest known stars, classified as O-type stars, located 15 light-years away from the knot, towards the right edge of the image. These stars, along with 500 less bright, but still highly luminous, B-type stars make up what is called the Cygnus OB2 association. Collectively, the association is thought to have a mass more than 30 000 times that of our Sun. The caterpillar-shaped knot, called IRAS 20324+4057, is a protostar in a very early evolutionary stage. It is still in the process of collecting material from an envelope of gas surrounding it. However, that envelope is being eroded by the radiation from Cygnus OB2. Protostars in this region should eventually become young stars with final masses about one to ten times that of our Sun, but if the eroding radiation from the nearby bright stars destroys the gas envelope before the protostars finish collecting mass, their final masses may be reduced. Spectroscopic observations of the central star within IRAS 20324+4057 show that it is still collecting material quite heavily from its outer envelope, hoping to bulk up. Only time will tell if the formed star will be a "heavy-weight" or a "light-weight" with respect to its mass. This image of IRAS 20324+4057 is a composite of Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) data taken in green and infrared light in 2006, and ground-based hydrogen data from the Isaac Newton Telescope in 2003, as part of the IPHAS H-alpha survey. The object lies 4500 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan). Links: NASA Press release

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1335a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IRAS 20324+4057
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Protostar
Esahubble_opo1335a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 20h 34m 13.5s
DEC = 41° 9’ 6.8”
Orientation
North is 7.5° CW
Field of View
2.4 x 1.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Cygnus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) (I) 814.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) (V) 606.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Blue
Esahubble_opo1335a_1280
×
ID
opo1335a
Subject Category
B.3.1.1  
Subject Name
IRAS 20324+4057
Credits
NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), and IPHAS
Release Date
2013-08-30T10:20:51
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1335a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
from NASA
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Blue
Band
Bandpass
I, V
Central Wavelength
814, 606
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
308.556303678, 41.1518765351
Reference Dimension
2938.0, 1892.0
Reference Pixel
2042.05443874, 1995.00115791
Scale
-1.38807e-05, 1.38807e-05
Rotation
-7.48466377426
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo1335a
Metadata Date
2013-08-27T13:48:44-04:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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