Young star rebels against parent cloud
23 December 2011
The Hubble space telescope has captured this amazing image of a giant gas cloud lit up by a bright young star. The image shows how violent the end stages of the star formation process can be, with the young object shaking up its surroundings.
A naughty young star, named S106 IR, lies within the cloud of hydrogen gas and ejects material at high speed, which disturbs the gas and dust around it. The star has a mass about 15 times that of the Sun and is in the final stages of its formation. It will soon quiet down when it enters the main sequence, the adult stage of stellar life.
For now, S106 IR stays within its parent cloud, but it is rebelling against it. The material coming off the star not only gives the cloud its hourglass shape but also makes the hydrogen gas in it very hot and unsettled. The complicated patterns it makes can clearly be seen in this Hubble image.
The young star also heats up the surrounding gas, making it reach temperatures of 10 000 degrees Celsius! The star’s radiation makes the gas glow, which is the blue area in this image.
Separating these areas of glowing gas is a cooler, thick lane of dust, that appears red. This dark material almost completely hides the young star from view, but it can still be seen peeking through the widest part of the dust lane.
