The composite image shows a star-forming region called 30 Doradas, also known as the Tarantula Nebula in this dateless handout.Distribution via Reuters
Washington: Astronomers are looking into a packed stellar nursery in the Tarantula Nebula, a huge cloud of gas and dust next to the galaxy. We have a new understanding of the dynamics of star formation and have acquired dazzling images of the universe.
Researchers on Wednesday said their observations are an interaction between the irresistible gravity that drives star formation and the large amount of energy that giant young stars inject into the nearby environment, which can hinder the birth of stars. Said provided insights into.
The Tarantula Nebula, located in the Milky Way’s satellite galaxy, called the Large Magellanic Cloud, is a net of stars, gas, and dust about 600 light-years in diameter. Light-years are the distance that light travels in a year, which is 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km).
The Tarantula Nebula, about 170,000 light-years away from Earth, is officially called 30 Dorados and refers to the catalog number of the object in the direction of Dorado.
It is called the Tarantula Nebula because part of its architecture appears as gas, dust, and shining filaments of stars reminiscent of spider feet. The gas composition of the nebula resembles the early universe of its history, mostly hydrogen and helium.
The European Southern Observatory has released an image of the Tarantula Nebula. This shows a faint gas cloud that can be the wreckage of a large cloud torn by the energy unleashed by a giant young star.
“You can see the stars forming where there is a lot of gas and dust. There are definitely a lot in the Tarantula Nebula,” said Guido De Marchi, an astrophysicist at the European Space Research and Technology Center (Netherlands) of the European Space Agency. I am saying. Co-author of a study published at the Astrophysical Journal https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ac723a and presented at a conference of the American Astronomical Society.
The findings were supported by observations using the Chile-based ALMA telescope.
“Stars are formed when gas clouds collapse under their own weight and the gas becomes denser. These clouds contract and warm until the core is hot enough to start a stellar engine, a giant nuclear reactor. “Masu,” said Demarqui.
“But when giant stars with more than 100 times the mass of the Sun begin to form, they emit so much energy that they prevent more gas from falling and more stars are formed. The Tarantula Nebula from ALMA has always thought that it would shut off fuel, showing that it can continue to fall unabated and new stars can continue to form where the gas is sufficiently dense. Is interesting and new, “he said.
De Marchi mentioned a phenomenon called feedback. Giant young stars emit large amounts of energy into the local environment in the form of photons and fast particles. The primitive composition of the nebula promoted the formation of particularly large stars, about 200 times larger than our Sun.
“The Tarantula Nebula is the most extreme feedback environment that can be observed in detail because it hosts the closest example of a giant young cluster,” said Tony Wong, an astrophysicist and lead author of the study at the University of Illinois. I am saying.
“One of the big mysteries of astronomy is why we can still witness the formation of stars today. A huge burst of star formation that came in and out long ago did not destroy all of the available gas. Why? Observations at ALMA can shine, revealing what is happening deep in the clouds, and how gravity and feedback can compete for influence and control the rate of star formation. It helps to understand, “Wong added.
The pure beauty of the nebula was not lost to the researchers.
“I personally love the Tarantula Nebula both scientifically and aesthetically,” Demarqui said. “It’s just a symbolic scene in the sky. I often wonder what would happen at night if we were on a planet around a star with bright colorful clouds and threads of gas crossing the sky.”
