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Extreme star cluster in new Hubble images

2 October 2007

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This Hubble image shows the gigantic nebula NGC 3603 located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System.

NGC 3603 hosts one of the most prominent, massive, young clusters in the Milky Way. Hubble has been observing this prime location for star formation studies.

The images show a young star cluster surrounded by a vast region of dust and gas. Most of the bright stars in the image are hot, blue stars. They produce ultraviolet radiation and violent winds that have formed an enormous cavity in the gas and dust surrounding the cluster.

Credits: NASA/ ESA/ STScI/Aura (The hubble heritage team)

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Zooming in to the centre of NGC 3603.

Credits: ESA/ Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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This annotated Hubble image shows the gigantic nebula NGC 3603 located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System.

NGC 3603 hosts one of the most prominent, massive, young clusters in the Milky Way. Hubble has been observing this prime location for star formation studies.

The region to the the lower left in the image is darker due to a mix of extinction of starlight and interstellar reddening caused by dust clouds in the foreground. Giant pillars of gas can also be seen extending away from the central cluster. The Bok globules appear at the top right of the image.

Credits: NASA/ ESA/ STScI/Aura (The hubble heritage team)

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This video illustrates the true nature of massive stars at the heart of NGC 3603. They are stars whose light has blended together

Credits: ESA/ Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)

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This is a wide-field image of the Milky Way stretching across the southern sky.

NGC 3603 is located in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way, about 20 000 light-years from the Solar System.

The Carina Nebula (NGC 3372) appears to the right in the image, glowing in red. At the centre of the image is the constellation of the Southern Cross. The bright yellow-white star at the left of the image is Alpha Centauri, a system of three stars, at a distance of about 4.4 light-years from Earth.

Credits: A. Fujii

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A wide-field image of the region of NGC 3603

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This is a wide-field image of the region of NGC 3603 taken on ground by the Digitized Sky Survey 2 (DSS 2). The glowing clouds of hydrogen gas, seen here in orange, compose a vast emission nebula. The field of view is approximately 2.6 x 2.8 degrees.

Credits: NASA/ ESA/ Digitized Sky Survey 2

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