Arcade adventure for young stars

Esahubble_potw1115a_1024

esahubble_potw1115a April 11th, 2011

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to study the young open star cluster IC 1590, which is found within the star formation region NGC 281 nicknamed the Pacman Nebula due to its resemblance to the famous arcade game character. This image only shows the central part of the nebula, where the brightest stars at the core of the cluster are found, with part of the Pacmans hungry mouth visible as the dark region below. But Pacman isnt gobbling up these stars. Instead, the nebulas gas and dust are being used as raw ingredients to make new stars. However, the stars in IC 1590 are still plotting their escape from the Pacman Nebula, as open clusters are only loosely bound together and the grouping will eventually disperse within a few tens of millions of years. IC 1590 lies about ten thousand light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia (The Queen). Through small telescopes the core of the cluster that appears at the top of this picture shows up as a triple star, but the nebula that surrounds it is much fainter and very hard to see. The eagle-eyed American astronomer E. E. Barnard, using a 15 cm telescope, first recorded it in the late nineteenth century. This picture was created from images taken using the Wide Field Channel of Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys. Images though yellow (F550M, coloured blue), orange (F660N, coloured green) and red (F658N) filters were combined. The F658N filter isolates light from glowing hydrogen gas. The total exposure times per filter were 450 s, 1017 s and 678 s, respectively and the field of view is about 3.3 arcminutes across.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1115a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IC 1590
Subject - Distant Universe
Star > Grouping > Cluster > Open
Esahubble_potw1115a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 0h 52m 47.2s
DEC = 56° 36’ 3.6”
Orientation
North is 30.9° CW
Field of View
3.2 x 3.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Cassiopeia

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (H-alpha) 658.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) 660.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 550.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1115a_1280
×
ID
potw1115a
Subject Category
D.3.6.4.1  
Subject Name
IC 1590
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2011-04-11T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1115a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, R, V
Central Wavelength
658, 660, 550
Start Time
Integration Time
678, 1017, 450
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
13.1967027469, 56.600999384
Reference Dimension
3877.0, 3944.0
Reference Pixel
1938.0, 1972.0
Scale
-1.38874891683e-05, 1.38874891683e-05
Rotation
-30.900000000000009
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
potw1115a
Metadata Date
2011-03-03T17:56:53+01:00
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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