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 primary mirror for Herschel Space Observatory is 3.5 meters wide, making . The ESA has released new images of star formation clouds in the Milky Way.
The image to the right shows a galactic bubble in RCW120, which is about 4,300 light years away. At the center of this bubble is a massive star, that is not seen at these wavelengths. This star is pushing on the surrounding gas with just the power of its light, compressing it until the gas can collapse to form new stars. However, it is the bright star at the lower center portion of the image is of real interest.
Herschel’s observation of the star-forming cloud RCW 120 has revealed an embryonic star which looks set to turn into one of the biggest and brightest stars in our Galaxy within the next few hundred thousand years. It already contains eight to ten times the mass of the Sun and is still surrounded by an additional 2000 solar masses of gas and dust from which it can feed further.
Not all of this 2000 solar masses of gas and dust will fall into the new star. However, it does raise a puzzling question. According to theory, new stars should stop forming at about 8 solar masses since their light should overcome gravity, and push away the surrounding gas and dust. However, astronomers also know that there are stars that are much larger than 8 solar masses. Therefore astronomers want to know how some stars can grow so large. Hopefully images from Herschel can help them out.
via ESA – Herschel – Herschel reveals the hidden side of star birth.
