Full-size (1950 Square)
On December 14, 2009, NASA launched the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope. This space-born telescope has a 16 inch diameter and surveys light in the infrared wavelengths. The telescope’s focal planes and optics are cooled with a two-stage solid-hydrogen cryostat. This gives the mission an expected lifetime of 10 months. Over that time, it will take one image about every 11 seconds for about 1.5 million images in total.
We have posted images from WISE before, and yesterday the WISE team released another beautiful image of a portion of our universe. WISE has taken an image of NGC 7822, which is in the constellation of Cepheus. This area has a young star forming region, and contains a young cluster of stars called Berkley 59.
Smaller, 600 Square
Click on the thumbnail for a full-resolution, high-quality Jpeg image. We took the original 1960×1950 Tiff image and processed it through Photoshop to bring you something with excellent quality at a reasonable size (513 KB). Be warned, this is a large image. The second image to the right is a more reasonable 600×600 Jpeg image. Click on it if the first one is a bit too large for your monitor.
From here on in, I will let the WISE team describe the image.
The rosebud-like red glow surrounding the hot, young stars is warm dust heated by the stars. Green “leafy” nebulosity enfolds the cluster, showing the edges of the dense, dusty cloud. This green material is from heated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, molecules that can be found on Earth in barbecue pits, exhaust pipes and other places where combustion has occurred.
Red sources within the green nebula indicate a second generation of stars forming at the surface of the natal cloud, possibly as a consequence of heating and compression from the younger stars. A supernova remnant associated with this region, called NGC 7822, indicates that a massive star has already exploded, blowing the cloud open in a “champagne flow” and leaving behind this floral remnant. Blue dots sprinkled throughout are foreground stars in our Milky Way galaxy.
The image comes from the NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team.
