天文台で演奏する３曲目 Stellar Snowflake Cluster に着手

天文台長からメールを頂いて、ちょっとしたヒントをもらい

Stellar Snowflake Cluster　

についてNASA のホームページで確認しました。

英語ですが、ちょっと引用しておきます。

簡単に内容をいいますと・・・

超新星　です。NEW BORN STARS  あるいは　PROTOSTARS

と呼ばれています。雲状の星雲の下から放射状にピンクの強い光が放たれています。

その様子がクリスマスツリーのようなので、

そのようなネーミングがされています。なんとチャーミングな～♪

 

Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, created in joint effort between Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instruments.

The newly revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks toward the center of the combined IRAC-MIPS image (left panel). The stars appear to have formed in regularly spaced intervals along linear structures in a configuration that resembles the spokes of a wheel or the pattern of a snowflake. Hence, astronomers have nicknamed this the "Snowflake Cluster."

Star-forming clouds like this one are dynamic and evolving structures. Since the stars trace the straight line pattern of spokes of a wheel, scientists believe that these are newborn stars, or "protostars." At a mere 100,000 years old, these infant structures have yet to "crawl" away from their location of birth. Over time, the natural drifting motions of each star will break this order, and the snowflake design will be no more.

While most of the visible-light stars that give the Christmas Tree Cluster its name and triangular shape do not shine brightly in Spitzer's infrared eyes, all of the stars forming from this dusty cloud are considered part of the cluster.Like a dusty cosmic finger pointing up to the newborn clusters, Spitzer also illuminates the optically dark and dense Cone Nebula, the tip of which can be seen towards the bottom left corner of each image.