A brand new picture from the European Southern Observatory exhibits a shocking starscape across the nebula Sh2-54, situated 6,000 light-years away within the constellation of Serpens. Positioned shut within the sky to the well-known Eagle Nebula, that is additionally a busy area of star formation the place clouds of mud and gasoline are coalescing into knots and forming the hearts of recent stars.
Nebulae like these are often called stellar nurseries due to all the brand new stars that kind inside them, and astronomers research them to study extra about stellar lifecycles and the situations that are required for stars to kind and develop.
This picture of the spectacular Sh2-54 nebula was taken in infrared gentle utilizing ESO’s VISTA telescope at Paranal Observatory in Chile. The clouds of mud and gasoline which can be usually apparent in seen gentle are much less evident right here, and on this gentle we will see the sunshine of the celebs behind the nebulae now piercing by way of. ESO/VVVX
The picture was taken within the infrared vary, which suggests much less of the clouds of mud that kind the nebula are seen. As a substitute, astronomers can look by way of the clouds of mud to see the celebs forming inside. It was taken utilizing the Seen and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA) telescope, a ground-based telescope situated within the Atacama desert, a extremely elevated and really dry location in Chile.
VISTA is a part of the Paranal Observatory, which incorporates different telescopes just like the Very Giant Telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope. This location is likely one of the hottest locations on the planet for constructing ground-based telescopes as a result of it very not often rains there, which means there may be additionally no cloud cowl on most nights so telescopes can observe the evening sky extra typically. It’s also in a sparsely populated space, so there may be little or no interference from radio alerts and little gentle air pollution.
This specific picture was taken utilizing VISTA’s 67-million-pixel digital camera as a part of a survey known as VVV. This survey makes use of a variety of telescopes together with Hubble, Chandra, and VISTA to have a look at the bulge of the Milky Manner which can also be a busy space for star formation.
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