Praying Mantis in the Cloud
by CritterKeeper on Jan.08, 2010, under Bugs, birds and other animals
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
The dark silhouette of a mantis stands out in this cloud of glowing gas. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals details inside the star-producing nebula N81 in the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Explore the image and find the two bright stars in the middle of the nebula. These two massive and bright stars are just a couple of a large number of stars being formed in this cloud. Some of the stars in this nebula are very bright; equal to about 300,000 stars like our Sun. The bright stars send out strong solar winds that drive dust and gas away. The stars also send out a blistering amount of ultraviolet radiation causing the nebula to glow.
N81 is a stellar nursery. Knots in the nebula, like those seen in the foreground, collapse under gravity. When enough material comes together, fusion may start and a star is born. Nuclear fusion is what powers stars and occurs when two hydrogen atoms smash together to form helium. Massive amounts of energy are created during this process giving a star light and heat. N81 and other clusters within the Small Magellanic Cloud offer scientists close-up views of how stars form.
:Hubble Space Telescope, N81, NASA, Small Magellanic Cloud, star formation
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Thanks for dropping by! This site combines incredible imagery from the Hubble Space Telescope, Spitzer Space Telescope and other great observatories with the imagination of children. Explore and share the patterns you see in the nebula, galaxies and star clusters.Note to Parents and Educators:
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