Scientists have released an amazing picture of a nebula glowing like cosmic fire

Scientists have released an amazing picture of a nebula glowing like cosmic fire

Scientists have released an amazing picture of a nebula glowing like cosmic fire

The new image of the Flame Nebula shows an unprecedented interstellar cloud. 01.18.2022, Sputnik, Brazil

2022-01-18T09: 03-0300

2022-01-18T09: 03-0300

2022-01-18T09: 03-0300

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Astronomers have released an image, published in Science Alert, of a star-forming region captured at radio wavelengths using the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX), revealing unprecedented detail. The Flame Nebula is located near the famous Horse Head Nebula, part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, in the constellation Orion, and is one of the best studied and photographed regions of the night sky. The Orion complex is a vast series of star-forming nebulae that extend hundreds of light years in all directions, starting about 1,000 light years from the Solar System. Because it is so close (cosmologically speaking) and so large, it’s an excellent laboratory for studying how stars are born. The Flame Nebula is one of the many stellar nurseries in the complex. It is what is classified as an emission nebula, that is, it emits its own light, unlike reflection nebulae, which shine only with reflected light from stars, and dark nebulae that do not shine, but appear to be made up of shadows. . , like an abyss in the universe. What makes an emission nebula glow is the ionization of gases in the nebula by bright radiation from a nearby hot star. Since young stars are often very hot, stellar nurseries tend to shine brightly. The Flame Nebula is home to hundreds of newly formed stars, concentrated in its center. Stars are born in dense clouds of dust and gas, which tend to obscure their presence at optical wavelengths. A tool like APEX, which takes pictures at radio wavelengths, can capture details our eyes can’t see. In their observations of the Orion composite available on arXiv, Stanke and colleagues were able to trace molecular flows, gale force winds pushed into interstellar space by star-forming processes, and map molecular gas in different regions of the nebula. The researchers also found a nebula that no one had seen before, almost perfectly circular, indicating a spherical starless cloud. They named this object the Cow Nebula Ball and believe that it can be used to study the structure and dynamics of clouds, although more observations are needed to better understand its nature and properties.