NASA Captures Glimpse at New Star Being Born Inside Dust Cloud [IMAGES]

Scientists of NASA and the European Space Agency have captured amazing images showing a glimpse of the process of star formation hundreds of light-years from the Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope, the approximately school-bus sized workhorse of deep-sky astronomy since the 90s, zeroed in on a star forming in IC 2631, a reflection nebula in the Chamaeleon constellation in the southern skies. The images captured by Hubble are stunning and will add an enormous bounty to our knowledge of stellar evolution.

In a statement, NASA wrote,

“Stars are born from clouds of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravitational attraction. As the cloud collapses, a dense, hot core forms and begins gathering dust and gas, creating an object called a “protostar.”

This Hubble infrared image captures a protostar designated J1672835.29-763111.64 in the reflection nebula IC 2631, part of the Chamaeleon star-forming region in the southern constellation Chamaeleon. Protostars shine with the heat energy released by clouds contracting around them and the accumulation of material from the nearby gas and dust. Eventually enough material collects, and the core of a protostar becomes hot and dense enough for nuclear fusion to begin, and the transformation into a star is complete. The leftover gas and dust can become planets, asteroids, comets, or remain as dust.”

A Rare Glimpse Into A Star’s Birth

The images gathered come from a long-term Hubble survey set to target 312 different protostars deep within the molecular clouds identified by the Spitzer and Herschel infrared space observatories. Protostars are primarily observable through infrared telescopes due to their emission of massive heat signatures and the obscuring dust clouds that surround them which retain heat but block visible light. The faint images and intricate details of protostar J1672835.29-763111.64 and all of its companion objects along with the other 311 candidates uncovered by the terrestrial observatories are at present only visible through the Hubble’s advanced infrared imaging systems, at least until its replacement: the James Webb Space Telescope is launched into orbit in December.