Space Brains, Beans and Bubbles

Credit: NASA, ESA and Jesús Maíz Apellániz (Insti­tuto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, Spain)

Resem­bling a giant brain, this image of N11 in the Large Mag­el­lanic Cloud from NASA’s Hub­ble Space Tele­scope is a space bub­ble filled with new stars.

Explore the image of N11, also known as the Bean Neb­ula. The pink hydro­gen gas clouds, Bok glob­ules, and pil­lars of gas and dust are all clues as to the true nature of the neb­ula. The Large Mag­el­lanic Cloud con­tains some of the largest star-making areas known to astronomers. N11 is one of the most active in the nearby Uni­verse. N11 is the sec­ond largest star-making neb­ula in the LMC and pro­duces some of the most mas­sive stars known. Three gen­er­a­tions of star clus­ters are found within this neb­ula. Look for the bright blue and yel­low stars near the bot­tom of the image. This large clus­ter, called NGC 1761, appears to be the old­est while within the bean-shaped neb­ula itself resides the youngest clus­ter born out of the neb­ula. Between these two groups lie a tight clus­ter of stars. In each wave of star birth, shells of gas and dust are blown away from the new stars form­ing bub­bles. This lim­its the growth of new stars in those areas but the con­cen­tra­tion of gas and dust in other areas will cre­ate new areas where stars can form.

In the upper left lies the com­pact Rose Neb­ula. This newest area of star for­ma­tion is lit up by bright stars within the neb­ula. Strong ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion from these mas­sive, hot stars cause the rose-like petals of gas and dust of the neb­ula to glow.

You can also find a few back­ground galax­ies glow­ing through the pink neb­ula cloud. My favorite is the spi­ral galaxy near the bottom-right bor­der of the nebula.