A stellar cradle at 5,500 light years, captured 80 million pixels

Madrid, Feb. 13 (Europa Press) –

The Southern European Observatory (ESO) has published an impressive image of eighty million pixels of the star cluster RCW 38.

The mosaic has been captured by View (visible and infrared survey telescope for astronomy), that operates in the Atacama desert, in Chile.

This star nursery is located about 5,500 light years in the Constellation of Vela. With its bright lines and swirls, this colorful cradle of stars includes from the intense pink of gas clouds to multicolored points (which are young stars).

Compared to our sun, which with about 4.6 billion years is in a stable phase of your life, RCW 38 stars are still very young. With less than a million years, RCW 38 contains about 2,000 starscreating this psychedelic landscape. This young star cluster is full of activity, which makes it an interesting objective for the astronomical community.

The star clusters They are like giant pressure pots that contain all the ingredients for the formation of stars: dense gas clouds and opaque clusters of cosmic dust. When this mixture of gas and dust collapses under its own gravity, a star is born.

The strong radiation from these newborn stars makes the gas surrounding the stellar cluster shine intensely, creating the pink tones we see in RCW 38. However, in visible light, many stars of the cluster RCW 38 remain hidden for us, Because dust blocks our vision.

That is where the viewcope view comes into play: its vircam camera observes the infrared light that, unlike visible light, can cross the dust almost without obstacles, revealing the true riches of RCW 38. Suddenly, we also see young stars inside of dusty wraps, or cold “failed” stars, known as brown dwarfs.

This infrared image was taken during the vvv survey (Variable views in the Milky Way), which has produced the most detailed infrared map ever performed from our native galaxy. Studies like this reveal the presence of still unknown astronomical objects, or give us a new vision of the acquaintances, Informs ESO in a statement.