wCone Nebula NGC 2264: parent and offspring stars | 9/06/1997 | ||
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Peering through the dust in a nearby star-forming region called NGC 2264 that contains the Cone Nebula, the infrared camera has provided direct confirmation of a type of starbirth called "triggered" star formation. Though such a starbirth scenario has been theorized for years, this is the first direct observation on such a small distance scale. | ||
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Image Credit: Rodger Thompson, Marcia Rieke & Glenn Schneider (Univ. of Arizona) & NASA. | |||
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Peering through the dust in a nearby star-forming region called NGC 2264 that contains the Cone Nebula, the infrared camera has provided direct confirmation of a type of starbirth called "triggered" star formation. Though such a starbirth scenario has been theorized for years, this is the first direct observation on such a small distance scale. This form of starbirth happens when a gale of high speed particles from a young massive star (called NGC 2264 IRS or Allen's Source) compresses nearby dust and gas until it is dense enough to trigger the formation of six much smaller and fainter Sun-like stars only a fraction of a light-year away from the massive "parent". | ![]() |
The
image on the left, taken in visible light by a ground-based telescope, shows
the Cone Nebula, located 2,500 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros.
The white box pinpoints the location of the star nursery. The nursery cannot
be seen in this image because dust and gas obscure it. The large cone of
cold molecular hydrogen and dust rising from the lefthand edge of the image
was created by the outflow from NGC 2264 IRS.
The NICMOS image on the right shows this massive star - the brightest source in the region - and the stars formed by its outflow. The baby stars are only .04 to .08 light-years away from their brilliant mother. The rings surrounding the massive star and the spikes emanating from it are not part of the image. This pattern demonstrates the near-perfect optical performance of NICMOS. A near-perfect optical system should bend light from point-like sources, such as NGC 2264 IRS, forming these diffraction patterns of rings and spikes. |
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