Valentine Rose

Credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech/Harvard-Smithsonian CfA

Bright, young stars form a rosebud-shaped neb­ula in this image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Tele­scope known as NGC 7129. In this Valentine’s Day image, thou­sands of stars are being formed in this dense cloud of gas and dust. Most stars, includ­ing our Sun, are thought to have formed in such clouds. Spitzer’s infrared cam­era allows us to peer inside this cloud.

Explore this chaotic stel­lar nurs­ery. Within the past mil­lion years, the new stars’ tor­rent of high-speed stel­lar winds have blown a bub­ble in the neb­ula, releas­ing them from their dusty cocoons. These stars also unleash sear­ing ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion. This ultra­vi­o­let radi­a­tion heats and excites the cloud and causes it to glow with a rose-colored light. Astronomers believe that the red­dish color comes from a rich source of hydro­car­bons in the cloud. Below the petals of the neb­ula, three stars cause an area rich in car­bon monox­ide to glow green.

Not all stars are form­ing in the larger neb­ula. Two out­ly­ing, smaller neb­ula are also form­ing a few young stars.

NGC 7129 is located in the con­stel­la­tion of Cepheus, the King, about 3,000 light-years from Earth.

Comments

Aurora 12-02-2010, 15:52

I though you found the Olympic Torch, for the open­ing cer­e­monies in Van­cou­ver. Let the com­pe­ti­tion begin!

S 13-02-2010, 17:46

Roses are red,
some live in space.
Vio­lets are blue,
they live out there, too!

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