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Credit & Copyright: Brandon Pimenta
Explanation:
Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings.
Born only about 100,000 years ago,
material streaming out from this
newborn star has formed the nebula dubbed Sharpless 2-106 Nebula (S106),
featured here.
A large disk of
dust and gas orbiting
Infrared Source 4 (IRS 4), visible in brown near the image center,
gives the nebula an hourglass or
butterfly shape.
S106 gas near IRS 4 acts as an
emission nebula
as it emits light after being
ionized, while
dust
far from
IRS 4 reflects light
from the central star and so acts as a
reflection nebula.
Detailed inspection of a recent
infrared image of S106
reveal hundreds of low-mass
brown dwarf stars lurking in
the
nebula's gas.
S106 spans about 2 light-years and lies about 2000 light-years away toward the
constellation of
the Swan (Cygnus).
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: star formation - nebula - gas - dust
Publications with words: star formation - nebula - gas - dust
See also: