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m16habw.txt
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1996-01-12
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RELEASE DATE: November 2, 1995
PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC95-44c
STELLAR "EGGS" EMERGE FROM MOLECULAR CLOUD (CLOSEUP)
(Evaporating Globules in M16)
This eerie, dark structure, resembling an imaginary sea serpent's head,
is a column of cool molecular hydrogen gas (two atoms of hydrogen in
each molecule) and dust that is an incubator for new stars. The stars
are embedded inside finger-like protrusions extending from the top of
the nebula. Each "fingertip" is somewhat larger than our own solar
system.
The pillar is slowly eroding away by the ultraviolet light from nearby
hot stars, a process called "photoevaporation". As it does, small
globules of especially dense gas buried within the cloud are
uncovered. These globules have been dubbed "EGGs" -- an acronym for
"Evaporating Gaseous Globules". The shadows of the EGGs protect gas
behind them, resulting in the finger-like structures at the top of the
cloud.
Forming inside at least some of the EGGs are embryonic stars -- stars
that abruptly stop growing when the EGGs are uncovered and they are
separated from the larger reservoir of gas from which they were drawing
mass. Eventually, the stars emerge as the EGGs themselves succumb to
photoevaporation.
The stellar EGGS are found, appropriately enough, in the "Eagle Nebula"
(also called M16 -- the 16th object in Charles Messier's 18th century
catalog of "fuzzy" permanent objects in the sky), a nearby star-forming
region 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Serpens.
The picture was taken on April 1, 1995 with the Hubble Space Telescope
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.
Credit: Jeff Hester and Paul Scowen (Arizona State University), and
NASA
Image files in GIF and JPEG format and captions may be accessed on
Internet via anonymous ftp from ftp.stsci.edu in /pubinfo:
GIF JPEG
PRC95-44c M16 B&W Detail gif/M16HaBW.gif jpeg/M16HaBW.jpg
Higher resolution versions (300 dpi JPEG) of the release photographs
will be available temporarily in /pubinfo/hrtemp: 95-44a.jpg,
95-44b.jpg and 95-44c.jpg. GIF and JPEG images, captions and press
release text are available via World Wide Web at URL
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR95/44.html, or via links in
http://www.stsci.edu/Latest.html and
http://www.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Pictures.html.