(ORDO NEWS) — In this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, part of the open cluster NGC 6530 looks like a swirling wall of smoke dotted with stars.
NGC 6530 is a cluster of several thousand stars located about 4350 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius.
The cluster is located within the larger Lagoon Nebula, a giant interstellar cloud of gas and dust.
Hubble has taken several images of the Lagoon Nebula in the past, including images published in 2010 and 2011.
Astronomers explored NGC 6530 with Hubble’s “Advanced Imaging Camera” and “Wide and Planetary Camera 2”.
They scoured the region, hoping to find new examples of propylids, a special class of protoplanetary disks surrounding newborn stars.
The vast majority of known proplids have been found in only one region, the nearby Orion Nebula. This makes it difficult to study their origin and lifespan in other astronomical environments.
Hubble’s ability to make observations in the near-infrared wavelengths particularly with its Wide Field Camera 3 has made it an indispensable tool for investigating star birth and the origin of exoplanetary systems.
The unprecedented infrared capabilities of the new James Webb Space Telescope will complement Hubble’s observations, allowing astronomers to peer through the dust shells around newly born stars and explore the earliest stages of star birth.
—
Online:
Contact us: [email protected]
Our Standards, Terms of Use: Standard Terms And Conditions.