Sunset in Mordor

Esahubble_potw1331a_1024

esahubble_potw1331a August 5th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Dont be fooled by the title; the mysterious, almost mystical bright light emerging from these thick, ominous clouds is actually a telltale sign of star formation. Here, a very young star is being born in the guts of the dark cloud LDN 43 a massive blob of gas, dust, and ices, gathered 520 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus (The Serpent Bearer). Stars are born from cosmic dust and gas, which floats freely in space until gravity forces it to bind together. The hidden newborn star in this image, revealed only by light reflected onto the plumes of the dark cloud, is named RNO 91. It is what astronomers call a pre-main sequence star, meaning that it has not yet started burning hydrogen in its core. The energy that allows RNO 91 to shine comes from gravitational contraction. The star is being compressed by its own weight until, at some point, a critical mass will be reached and hydrogen, its main component, will begin to fuse together, releasing huge amounts of energy in the process. This will mark the beginning of adulthood for the star. But even before this happens the adolescent star is bright enough to shine and generate powerful stellar winds, emitting intense X-ray and radio emission. RNO 91 is a variable star around half the mass of the Sun. Astronomers have been able to observe the existence of a dusty, icy disc surrounding it, stretching out to over 1700 times the distance from Earth to the Sun. It is believed that this disc may host protoplanets planets in the process of being formed and will eventually evolve into a fully-fledged planetary system. This image is based on data gathered by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. A version of this image was entered into the Hubbles Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1331a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
LDN 43 RNO 91
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Young Stellar Object
Nebula > Appearance > Dark
Esahubble_potw1331a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 16h 34m 29.2s
DEC = -15° 46’ 59.3”
Orientation
North is 32.9° CCW
Field of View
1.1 x 1.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Ophiuchus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (R) 606.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFPC2) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Esahubble_potw1331a_1280
×
ID
potw1331a
Subject Category
B.3.1.2   B.4.2.3  
Subject Name
LDN 43, RNO 91
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Release Date
2013-08-05T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1331a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
From http://pasj.asj.or.jp/v59/n6/590613/590613.pdf
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
R, I
Central Wavelength
606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
248.621742442, -15.7831348226
Reference Dimension
677.0, 592.0
Reference Pixel
338.0, 296.0
Scale
-2.79353978072e-05, 2.79353978072e-05
Rotation
32.939999999999962
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
potw1331a
Metadata Date
2013-05-15T10:14:19+02:00
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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