The Herschel Space Observatory is an infrared telescope run by the European Space Agency (ESA). It is named for Sir William Herschel who discovered the planet Uranus and the infrared spectrum. The ESA has released a new image of the Rosette Nebula that was taken by the Herschel Space Observatory. The Rosette Nebula is approximately 5,000 light years from Earth. Some of the bright smudges within the image are not really stars, but protostars. They are expected to collapse and form stars with a mass ranging from the size of our size to ten times as large. From the news release about this latest image:
Infrared image of the Rosette molecular cloud. Herschel collects the infrared light given out by dust and this image is a three-colour composite made of wavelengths at 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns (red). It was made with observations from Herschel’s Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE). The bright smudges are dusty cocoons containing massive protostars. The small spots near the centre of the image are lower mass protostars.
Credits: ESA/PACS & SPIRE Consortium/HOBYS Key Programme Consortia
