| NASA Center: |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|---|
| Image # : |
PR99-20 |
|---|
| Date : |
03/05/1999
|
|---|
|
Title
Life Cycle of Stars
Full Description
In this stunning picture of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603, the
crisp resolution of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures various
stages of the life cycle of stars in one single view.
To the upper left of center is the evolved blue supergiant called Sher
25. The star has a unique circumstellar ring of glowing gas that is a
galactic twin to the famous ring around the supernova 1987A. The
grayish-bluish color of the ring and the bipolar outflows (blobs to the
upper right and lower left of the star) indicates the presence of
processed (chemically enriched) material. Near the center of the view
is a so-called starburst cluster dominated by young, hot Wolf-Rayet
stars and early O-type stars. A torrent of ionizing radiation and fast
stellar winds from these massive stars has blown a large cavity around
the cluster.
The most spectacular evidence for the interaction of ionizing radiation
with cold molecular-hydrogen cloud material are the giant gaseous
pillars to the right of the cluster. These pillars are sculptured by
the same physical processes as the famous pillars Hubble photographed
in the M16 Eagle Nebula. Dark clouds at the upper right are so-called
Bok globules, which are probably in an earlier stage of star formation.
To the lower left of the cluster are two compact, tadpole-shaped
emission nebulae. Similar structures were found by Hubble in Orion, and
have been interpreted as gas and dust evaporation from possibly
protoplanetary disks (proplyds).
This true-color picture was taken on March 5, 1999 with the Wide Field
Planetary Camera 2.
Keywords
Hubble Space Telescope HST NGC 3603 Supernova Bok Globules M16 Eagle Nebula Orion Wide Field Planetary Camera WFPC
Subject Category
Deep Space Studies, Hubble,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HSTI
- Center Number:
PR99-20
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-000938
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA, Wolfgang Brandner JPL-IPAC, Eva K. Grebel University of
- Original Source: DIGITAL
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(Pixels) | Size
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Small |
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Medium |
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1483 |
1504 |
1,746 |
Large |
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1483 |
1504 |
1,743 |
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Updated October 31, 2002
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