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<ul><li>The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) took one of the most detailed pictures of the <keyword id="67503" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="milky-way">Milky Way</keyword>'s core — the <keyword id="8537034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="swan-nebula">Swan Nebula</keyword>.<br /></li><li>The image was presented at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference on Tuesday. <br /></li><li>Scientists have spotted nine new areas where the Swan Nebula is collapsing and <keyword id="1858157" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="new-stars">new stars</keyword> are being born amid clouds of gas and dust.<br /></li></ul>The world's largest airborne telescope — the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) — just captured the most detailed view of the centre of our galaxy. <br /><br />The Universities Space Research Association (<a href="https://newsroom.usra.edu/sofia-reveals-how-the-swan-nebula-hatched/">USRA</a>) shared this mind-boggling image of the Swan Nebula during the American Astronomical Society (AAS) conference on Tuesday.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="sofia3" msid="73150977" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;These dense clouds of gas and dust at the center of the Swan Nebula are more than 600 lightyears wide &amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />More than 600 light-years wide, the image shows dense clouds of gas and dust that are swirling around each other. It allowed scientists to spot nine new areas where the nebula's clouds are collapsing and where new stars could one day emerge. <br /><br />"This is the most detailed view of the nebula we have ever had. It's the first time we can see some of its youngest, massive stars, and start to truly understand how it evolved into the iconic nebula we see today," said USRA's Jim De Buizer<br /><br /><div type="Youtube" id="sgEkCZ-1CNA" title="SOFIA Reveals New View of Milky Way’s Center" thumbUrl="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sgEkCZ-1CNA/mqdefault.jpg"></div>
<strong><br />The birth of new stars<br /></strong>The Swan Nebula is more than 5,000 lightyears from Earth in the constellation, Sagittarius — and it's right next to the <keyword id="2104882" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="20" keywordseo="supermassive-black-hole">supermassive black hole</keyword> at the centre of the Milky Way.<br /><br />More than a 100 of the massive young stars in our galaxy lie at its core — each multiple times the size of the Sun. But the youngest of them are hidden in clouds of gas. This makes them difficult to spot even with space telescopes. The collective light being given off is so bright that the resulting images look overexposed.<br /><br /><div type="image" title="sofia1_edited" msid="73150887" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The most detailed image of the Swan Nebula at the center of the Milky Way galaxy taken by the world’s largest airborne telescope - the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA)&amp;lt;span class=&amp;quot;redactor-invisible-space&amp;quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/span&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>

<br />SOFIA's Faint Object Infrared Camera (FORCAST) allowed the telescope to peer through the cocoons of dust and gas to see new young generations of stars living within. <br /><br />Scientists don't know exactly how stars are born. So far, they've been able to ascertain that protostars are the earlier known phase in stellar evolution. This is when a newborn star is so young that it's still feeding off the molecular cloud that surrounds it. <br /><br />These protostars have been found in nine new areas where the nebula is collapsing.<br /><br /><strong>The secrets of the Swan Nebula<br /></strong><br />The image also shows that Swan Nebula didn't always have a swan-like shape. The age of stars across the celestial body vary. The centre of the nebula — seen as blue gas heating the core in the image — is the oldest. It was likely formed first. <br /><br />The southern region of the Swan Nebula is the youngest. This is where most of the protostars have been spotted.<br /><br />The northern area formed sometime in between the two other regions. The radiation and stellar winds from previous generations of stars that have died are scattered there. They prevent the next generation of stars from forming.<br /><br />The red areas near the edges of the nebula are cold dust, first detected by the Herschel Space Telescope.<br /><br /><strong>The Milky Way's supermassive black hole<br /></strong><br />Black holes are at the centre of most galaxies and the Milky Way is no different. Its black hole can be seen near the bottom with waves of fiery-looking gas surrounding it. <br /><br />However, the Milky Way's black hole is relatively quieter than most other black holes discovered, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). <br /><br />An image taken by SOPHIA last year revealed that the supermassive black hole is surrounded by an ‘invisible' magnetic field — a possible reason for the prevention of activity. <br /><br /><div type="image" title="sofia2_edited" msid="73151011" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The ‘invisible’ magnetic field over the Milky Way&amp;#39;s supermassive black hole&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>
<br />SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner carrying a 106-inch diameter telescope. The telescope itself is equipped with cameras, spectrometers and polarimeters. Unlike space-based telescopes, like Hubble, SOFIA gets to land after each flight. This gives scientists the opportunity to continuously monitor and upgrade its instruments.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/supermassive-black-hole-bigger-than-7-billion-suns-is-spinning-so-fast-that-its-close-to-breaking-the-laws-of-physics/articleshow/73137059.cms">Supermassive black hole bigger than 7 billion Suns is spinning so fast that it's close to breaking the laws of physics</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasas-planet-hunter-uncovers-its-first-world-with-two-stars-1300-light-years-away/articleshow/73133158.cms">NASA's planet-hunter uncovers its first world with two stars 1,300 light-years away</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/scientists-predict-a-star-thats-slowly-been-getting-brighter-over-the-past-decades-will-explode-in-2083/articleshow/73138295.cms?src=hp_latest">A star that's slowly been getting brighter over the past decades will explode in 2083</a></strong><br />

Stars are being born next to the Milky Way's supermassive black hole in a stunning new image by the world's largest airborne telescope

<br /><br /><ul><li>Astronomers at the <keyword id="8524172" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="national-center-of-radio-astrophysics">National Center of Radio Astrophysics</keyword> (NCRA) in India have a spotted galaxy AGC 203001 with a large ring of hydrogen gas wrapped around it.</li><li>The galaxy is 260 million light-years away from Earth.</li><li>Normally, reservoirs of neutral hydrogen gas are accompanied by star formation, but there are no new stars being born in this ring of hydrogen.</li></ul>Galaxies are made up of interstellar gas, cosmic dust, entire solar systems, and stars. Normally, these stars are born in clouds of neutral hydrogen gas. More gas, more stars.<br /><br />However, one galaxy 260 million light-years from Earth shows zero signs of star formation despite having a ring of hydrogen gas four times the size of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/milky-way-galaxy-surrounded-by-massive-radio-bubbles-stretching-hundreds-of-light-years/articleshow/71106392.cms">Milky Way</a> around it. <br /><br />Astronomers at the National Center of Radio Astrophysics (<a href="https://www.tifr.res.in/TSN/article/Wadadekar%202020%20TIFR%20release_rev.pdf">NCRA</a>) spotted galaxy AGC 203001 using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in Pune. They found that even though the galaxy had a ring of hydrogen gas around it — there were no new stars being born. This is despite the fact that the ring is 380,000 lightyears wide, much bigger than the galaxy itself. <br /><br /><strong>Where did the stars go?<br /></strong><br />Nobody knows where and how these rings of hydrogen gas form. The most popular theory is that they are a result of galaxy colliding into other galaxies, but even that’s largely debated.<br /><br />In fact, there’s only one other galaxy discovered by scientists that’s has a hydrogen ring as big as AGC 203001, according to the study published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/492/1/1/5603752">Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</a>.<br /><br />Normally, large reservoirs of neutral hydrogen gas around a galaxy are accompanied by new stars being born within its fold. The <keyword id="1270472" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Eagle-Nebula">Eagle Nebula</keyword>, for instance, is 5.5 million-year-old clouds of molecular hydrogen gas and dust. <br /><br />
  <div type="image" title="eaglenebula_edited" msid="73104116" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hubble Telescope&amp;#39;s image of the &amp;#39;Pillars of Creation&amp;#39; within the Eagle Nebula. These clouds of hydrogen gas and dust have clumps along their edges with embriyonic stars within.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>



<br />According to images taken by the Hubble Telescope, the clouds were dotted by clumps of gas — Evaporating Gaseous Globules (EGGs) — on their outer edges. Inside some of the EGGs were embryonic stars.<br /><br />Galaxy AGC 203001 as more than enough hydrogen — even though it’s exact distribution isn’t known — but no new stars.<br /><br />The team of NCRA astronomers even got some help as asked two French astronomers to take more sensitive images using the Canda-France-Hawaii-Telescope (CFHT) located in Hawaii. But even they didn’t turn up any signs of starlight.<br /><br /><strong>What’s next?<br /></strong><br />There isn’t any clear explanation for why AGC 203001 is star-less despite having copious amounts of hydrogen gas. In order to find out why this is the case, the NRC team is now on the hunt for other such galaxies. <br /><br />Comparison other such galaxies, with rings of neutral hydrogen gas surrounding them, to help scientists figure out how such rings come to exist in the first place — and why most have stars forming but AGC 203001 doesn’t.<br /><br /><strong>See also:<br /></strong><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/milky-ways-neighbour-galaxy-not-dead-with-young-blue-stars-at-its-center/articleshow/71269866.cms">Milky Way's neighbour might not be so ‘dead’ with young stars brewing at its center</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/astronomers-accidentally-discover-a-new-galaxy-with-as-many-stars-as-the-milky-way/articleshow/71715185.cms">Astronomers ‘accidentally’ discover a new galaxy with as many stars as the Milky Way</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/bubbles-filled-with-thousands-of-stars-found-in-the-milky-way/articleshow/71385825.cms">Bubbles filled with thousands of stars found in the Milky Way</a><br />

Indian scientists spot a galaxy 260 million light-years away that isn't giving birth to any new stars

<ul class="summary-list"><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-probes-rocket-leak-computer-problems-2017-12">NASA's Voyager 1</a> probe has detected a faint, constant hum in the <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">space</keyword> beyond our <keyword id="52393" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Solar-System">solar system</keyword>.</li><li>When charged gas ripples through <keyword id="1865887" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="interstellar-space">interstellar space</keyword>, those ripples emit a detectable vibration.</li><li>The <keyword id="1367953" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Voyager-1">Voyager 1</keyword> spacecraft <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-pale-blue-dot-photo-30th-anniversary-2020-2">left Earth</a> more than 40 years ago and entered <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-voyager-1-spacecraft-exiting-solar-system-2012-6">interstellar space</a> in 2012.</li></ul><p>More than 14 billion miles from Earth, <keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s <keyword id="1012316" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Voyager">Voyager</keyword> 1 spacecraft is listening to the background music of interstellar space.</p><p>The probe, which launched more than 40 years ago, exited our solar system in 2012. Five years after its interstellar foray began, Voyager 1 began picking up a monotonous droning.  </p><p>According to a study published Monday in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01363-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nature Astronomy</a>, the spacecraft is detecting the constant burble of charged gas, known as plasma. The sound is created as this plasma ripples through the interstellar medium - a soup of radiation, gaseous particles, and dust that fills the space between stars.</p><p>"We're detecting the faint, persistent hum of interstellar gas," Stella Koch Ocker, a Cornell University astronomer and co-author of the new study, <a href="https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/05/emptiness-space-voyager-1-detects-plasma-hum">said in a release</a>.</p><p>The humming would not be audible to the human ear, Ocker said, but Voyager 1's onboard instruments can pick up the vibrations.</p><p>"If we could hear it, it would sound like a single steady note, playing constantly but changing very slightly over time," she <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/faraway-nasa-probe-detects-eerie-hum-interstellar-space-2021-05-11/">told Reuters</a>.</p><p>Keeping tabs on those vibrations as Voyager 1 travels further could help astronomers learn more about what interstellar space is like, and whether the mixture of gas and radiation differs from place to place in the universe.</p><h2>'A quiet or gentle rain'</h2><div type="image" title="voyager 1 in 1976" height="2192" width="2156" msid="82587110" hostid="261"></div><p>Voyager 1 has traveled farther from Earth than any other spacecraft in history. It's one of only two human-made objects that have ever crossed into interstellar space - the other i sits counterpart, <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/beyond/exploration/?page=0&amp;per_page=10&amp;order=launch_date+desc%2Ctitle+asc&amp;search=&amp;tags=Beyond+Our+Solar+System&amp;category=33stem&amp;category=33">Voyager 2</a>, which left the solar system in 2018.</p><p>NASA launched the twin Voyagers in 1977 to swing around Jupiter and Saturn over the course of a 5-year mission. The spacecraft taught astronomers about the composition of Saturn's rings and the existence of volcanoes on Jupiter's moon, Io. Then Voyager 2 went on to visit Uranus and Neptune, while Voyager 1 continued on toward the edge of our solar system.</p><p>To truly reach interstellar space, both Voyager probes had to cross the heliopause - the outer boundary of the stream of charged particles shot out by the sun. This solar wind, as the stream is known, extends beyond our solar system, but at <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/sunearth/science/Heliosphere.html">the heliopause</a>, it encounters pressure from the wind in interstellar space and gets turned back toward the sun.</p><div type="image" title="voyager 1 nasa in the heliopause" height="720" width="960" msid="82587116" hostid="261"></div><p>Research suggests the sun's influence can sometimes extend beyond the heliopause, though. Occasionally, the sun spits out <a href="https://www.swpc.noaa.gov/phenomena/coronal-mass-ejections">billions of tons</a> of charged particles from its atmosphere in the form of solar flares. These eruptions can cause violent disturbances in interstellar gas. Voyager 1 has detected such shockwaves before.</p><p>But the farther into the heliopause Voyager 1 goes, the less the sun's energy should ooze into the interstellar medium and push or pull on the gas therein.</p><p><a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/as-nasas-voyager-1-surveys-interstellar-space-its-density-measurements-are-making-waves">According to NASA</a>, there will come a point in Voyager 1's travels when solar particles no longer influence its measurements. Once the probe gets there, "it will sense the stirrings from sources deeper in the cosmos," the agency said.</p><p>Indeed, the humming outlined in the new study seems unrelated to what the sun is doing - unlike those erratic shockwaves, this is a constant vibration in the interstellar medium, which suggests a different source of energy that astronomers might not know about yet.</p><p>"The interstellar medium is like a quiet or gentle rain," James Cordes, a Cornell astronomer and another study co-author, said in the release. "In the case of a solar outburst, it's like detecting a lightning burst in a thunderstorm and then it's back to a gentle rain."</p><p>Listening for the hum of that gentle rain could help researchers better understand how dense the space between stars is - and whether that density changes - as Voyager 1 gets farther and farther from Earth. It could also reveal clues about how and where the most stellar nurseries are, since stars form in high-density interstellar clouds.</p>

The farthest spacecraft from Earth has detected a 'hum' in the space beyond our solar system

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6360409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Nasa">NASA</keyword>'s final "Image of the Day" for 2020 depicts the Orion Nebula, located 1,500 light-years from Earth.</li><li>The Hubble and Spitzer <keyword id="41531" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="space">Space</keyword> Telescopes captured the stunning, colorful image.</li><li>Nebulae are giant clouds of gas and dust where new stars are born.</li></ul><p>NASA decided to share some interstellar fireworks to end an unforgettable year.</p><p>The agency posts an <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html">"image of the day,"</a> every day, and the final image of 2020 did not disappoint.</p><p>A canvas of color, NASA's December 31 image of the day depicts a composite image of <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/chaos-at-the-heart-of-the-orion-nebula/">the Orion Nebula</a>, captured by the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Hubble Space </a>and Spitzer Space Telescopes.</p><p>It's located more than 1,500 light-years away from Earth.</p><p>Nebulae like this one are interstellar nurseries  - giant clouds of gas and dust in space that cradle infant stars as they're born. Some nebulae form as stars die: As a star's core cools, it starts to shed its outer layers, which disperse to form gaseous clouds.</p><h2>A rainbow canvas</h2><p>To the naked eye, nebulae wouldn't actually look like rainbow canvases peppered with dots of lights (which typically show new stars forming).</p><div type="image" title="Cepheus nebula" height="1083" width="2500" msid="80064951" hostid="261"></div><p>When space telescopes like the Hubble image the hydrogen, sulfur, and carbon molecules that make up nebulae like Orion, <a href="https://www.space.com/8059-truth-photos-hubble-space-telescope-sees.html">they don't capture color</a>. Rather, Hubble records particles of light, which NASA can then view through different filters that only let in certain wavelengths of color. Then they assign color to the particles that come through those filters (light than came through the red filter is assigned a red color, for example.)</p><div type="image" title="Helix Nebula" height="582" width="700" msid="80064952" hostid="261"></div><p>By combining images of the same nebula viewed with different filters, the agency can create a composite, color image like the ones shown above.</p><p>"We often use color as a tool, whether it is to enhance an object's detail or to visualize what ordinarily could never be seen by the human eye," <a href="http://hubble.stsci.edu/gallery/behind_the_pictures/meaning_of_color/#:~:text=A%20typical%20Hubble%20image%20is,representing%20different%20colors%20of%20light.&amp;text=We%20often%20use%20color%20as,seen%20by%20the%20human%20eye.eye.">NASA said</a>.</p><p>There are roughly <a href="https://theplanets.org/nebula-facts/#:~:text=Right%20now%2C%20we%20know%20of,spherical%2C%20elliptical%2C%20or%20bipolar.">3,000 nebulae</a> in our galaxy.</p><p>The closest known nebula to our planet is the Helix Nebula, the cosmic remnant of a dying star. It's about <a href="https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/nebula/en/#:~:text=A%20nebula%20is%20a%20giant,dust%20and%20gas%20in%20space.">half the distance from Earth</a> as the Orion Nebula is - 700 light-years (so if you traveled at the speed of light, it'd take you 700 years to get there).</p><p>The <keyword id="145693" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Hubble-Space-Telescope">Hubble Space Telescope</keyword> has been imaging nebulae <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-the-hubble-space-telecope-58.html#:~:text=The%20Hubble%20Space%20Telescope%20is,much%20as%20two%20adult%20elephants.">for 30 years</a>, and these images help scientists learn more about how these cosmic clouds evolve, or even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-space-telescope-reveals-fading-nebula-in-deep-space-2020-12">dim and shrink</a>, over time.</p>

NASA shared some interstellar fireworks to bring 2020 to an end. The Orion Nebula looks like a rainbow canvas peppered with dots of light.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Astronomers released a new image of the Orion Nebula on Monday from the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-how-telescopes-evolved-from-blurry-glass-plates-to-webb-2022-9">James Webb Space Telescope</a>.</li><li>Webb's infrared cameras caught star-forming clouds and a cocoon of gas 1,350 light-years away.</li></ul><p>New <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">James Webb Space Telescope</a> images, released Monday, captured the most detailed and sharpest images ever taken of the Orion Nebula.</p><p>"We are blown away by the breathtaking images of the Orion Nebula. We started this project in 2017, so we have been waiting more than five years to get these data," Els Peeters, a Western University astrophysicist who helped lead the observations, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release</a>.</p><p>"These new observations allow us to better understand how massive stars transform the gas and dust cloud in which they are born," Peeters added.</p><p>The new images were released early and will now be studied by an international collaboration of more than 100 scientists in 18 countries, as part of a program known as <a href="https://pdrs4all.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PDRs4All.</a></p><p>The Orion Nebula is a massive star-forming region 1,350 light-years from Earth, making it the nearest stellar nursery to us. Dense clouds of cosmic dust in the nebula obscure star-forming structures from instruments that rely on visible light, like the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/webb-infared-early-universe-hubble-ultraviolet-insights-breathtaking-images-2022-8">Hubble Space Telescope</a>. By <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/james-webb-team-unveils-nasa-space-telescope-first-images-2022-7">gathering infrared light</a>, Webb is able to peer through those layers of dust, giving astronomers unprecedented views of the nebula's various components. </p><p>Below, take a glimpse at structures Webb revealed that were previously enshrouded in dust.</p><h1>Webb spots previously hidden star-forming threads</h1><div type="image" title="Hubble image of the Orion Nebula, left. JWST image of the Orion Nebula, right." height="1440" width="2565" msid="94180467" hostid="261" sizebytes="118682"></div><p>Astronomers believe nebula are clouds dominated by vast, tangled, thread-like structures, called filaments, which feed material like gas to form and fuel stars. Webb's images reveal these gaseous threads in great detail.</p><p>"We clearly see several dense filaments. These filamentary structures may promote a new generation of stars in the deeper regions of the cloud of dust and gas," Olivier Berné, a research scientist French National Centre for Scientific Research, who was part of the observations, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release</a>.</p><p>Still, the exact role of filaments in star formation remains unclear. Researchers hope the new observations will help them tease out details about how they foster the birth and growth of infant stars.</p><h1>Webb's camera captures baby stars nestled inside a cocoon of gas</h1><div type="image" title="On the left, Hubble's image of the a patch of sky of the Orion nebula is shrouded by dust. On the right, Webb's image cuts through dust and reveals a young star with disk inside its cocoon of gas." height="1000" width="2000" msid="94180469" hostid="261" sizebytes="78776"></div><p>Young, newly-forming stars nestle inside dense cocoons of cold gas and dust, which are difficult to see in visible light. Webb, however, is so <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/nasa-james-webb-hidden-details-infrared-galaxies-2022-7">sensitive to infrared light</a> it would be able to detect the <a href="https://jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/tweetChat2.html">heat of a bumblebee</a> on Earth from as far away as the moon.</p><p>In the new images, Webb was able to capture a star forming inside a cocoon of gas, which isn't visible in Hubble's images of the nebula. </p><p>"We hope to gain understanding about the entire cycle of star birth," Edwin Bergin, a University of Michigan professor who was part of the research team, said in a <a href="https://news.umich.edu/first-jwst-images-of-orion-nebula-released/">press release.</a></p><p>"In this image we are looking at this cycle where the first generation of stars is essentially irradiating the material for the next generation. The incredible structures we observe will detail how the feedback cycle of stellar birth occurs in our galaxy and beyond," Bergin said.</p><h1>Webb offers sharper views of radiation from a massive star cluster at the nebula's heart </h1><div type="image" title="On the left, a Hubble image of the Orion nebula shows the Trapezium Cluster just beyond. On the right, a Webb image of the Orion nebula shows the Trapezium Cluster just beyond." height="1000" width="2000" msid="94180471" hostid="261" sizebytes="92862"></div><p>The Orion Nebula is home to a massive group of stars called the Trapezium Cluster. This group of young stars emits intense ultraviolet radiation, shaping the surrounding cloud of dust and gas.</p><p>While <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/jupiter-images-webb-sees-rings-moons-hubble-cant-2022-8">Hubble is able to capture</a> radiation's effects in visible and ultraviolet light, Webb's infrared image showcases a sharper view of how the cluster's intense starlight and radiation blasts the neighboring region, leaving behind a cavity to the right. To the left, clouds distant enough to escape the most powerful radiation remain.</p><p>"We have never been able to see the intricate fine details of how interstellar matter is structured in these environments, and to figure out how planetary systems can form in the presence of this harsh radiation," Emilie Habart, an associate professor at Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale in France, said in a <a href="https://news.westernu.ca/2022/09/jwst-pdrs4all-orion-nebula/">press release.</a></p><p>The Orion Nebula is similar to the environment our solar system was born in, Habart added, so studying it could be key to understanding our solar system.</p>

Side-by-side photos of the Orion Nebula show how powerful Webb's infrared cameras are. They spot star-forming clouds and gas cocoons Hubble can't see.

<br /><br /><ul><li>The largest gas cloud in the <keyword id="67503" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="milky-way">Milky Way</keyword> is our immediate neighbour according to a new 3D map of the galaxy by astronomers at Harvard University.</li><li>The ‘Radcliff wave’ is over 9000 lightyears long and 400 lightyears wide.</li><li>Originally hypothesized to be a ring, the massive wave is a mere 500 lightyears away from the Sun.</li></ul>A new 3D map of the Milky Way reveals that we live next to the largest gas cloud in the galaxy. <br /><br />In fact, it’s our immediate neighbour. <br /><br />According to astronomers at Harvard University, the 9000 lightyears-long wave of gas is surprisingly close to our Sun. Within its cacoons, new stars are being born.<br /><br />
	
	
	
	
	<div type="image" title="radcliffe1_edited" msid="73154475" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Radcliffe Wave (red points) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of Milky Way galaxy constructed using the WorldWide Telescope software&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>











<br />"What we’ve observed is the largest coherent gas structure we know of in the galaxy, organized not in a ring but in a massive, undulating filament. The sun lies only 500 lightyears from the wave at its closest point. It’s been right in front of our eyes all the time, but we couldn’t see it until now," said <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/01/largest-gaseous-structure-ever-seen-in-our-galaxy-is-discovered/">Joao Alves</a>, lead author of the study published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1874-z">Nature</a>.<br /><br />It’s not even a local cloud of dust. Scientists have been able to determine that the high-velocity cloud is an interstellar visitor originally in another galaxy.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
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<br /><strong>Re-thinking how the Milky Way galaxy formed<br /></strong>The Gould Belt Survey has been observing the star-forming region using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory in hopes of finding a 3D ring of stellar nurseries.<br /><br />"Gould and Herschel both observed bright stars forming in an arc projected on the sky, so for a long time, people have been trying to figure out if these molecular clouds actually form a ring in 3D," explained <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/01/largest-gaseous-structure-ever-seen-in-our-galaxy-is-discovered/">Alves</a>.<br /><br />Instead, a giant wave of gas extending over 400 lightyears wide arching (CK THIS) over the Solar System was found using the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Gaia spacecraft. The phenomenon has been dubbed the ‘Radcliffe Wave’ overturning initial theories of a ring.<br /><br />
	
	
	
	<div type="image" title="radcliffe2_edited" msid="73154513" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The Radcliffe Wave (red points) next to the Sun (yellow point) inside a cartoon model of Milky Way galaxy constructed using the WorldWide Telescope software&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div>









<br />"No astronomer expected that we live next to a giant, wave-like collection of gas -- or that it forms the Local Arm of the Milky Way," said Alyssa Goodman, co-author of the study.<br /><br /><strong>It talks to the Sun<br /></strong>The scientists are yet to determine what gives the Radcliffe Wave its shape, but they believe it has major repercussions for our Solar System.<br /><br />"What we do know is that our sun interacts with this structure. It passed by a festival of supernovae as it crossed Orion 13 million years ago, and in another 13 million years it will cross the structure again, sort of like we are surfing the wave," explained Alves.<br /><br />
  
  
  
  
  
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<br /><strong>See also:<br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/supermassive-black-hole-bigger-than-7-billion-suns-is-spinning-so-fast-that-its-close-to-breaking-the-laws-of-physics/articleshow/73137059.cms">Supermassive black hole bigger than 7 billion Suns is spinning so fast that it's close to breaking the laws of physics</a><br /><br /><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/nasas-planet-hunter-uncovers-its-first-world-with-two-stars-1300-light-years-away/articleshow/73133158.cms">NASA's planet-hunter uncovers its first world with two stars 1,300 light-years away</a><br /><br /></strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/space/news/scientists-predict-a-star-thats-slowly-been-getting-brighter-over-the-past-decades-will-explode-in-2083/articleshow/73138295.cms?src=hp_latest"><strong>A star that's slowly been getting brighter over the past decades will explode in 2083</strong></a><br />

We live next to the largest gas cloud in the Milky Way — and it's giving birth to new stars

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table center"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>About 1,600 light years away, in the constellation Orion, an interstellar cloud of gas and dust called Messier 78 is hiding a stellar nursery of young and unborn stars.<p>As explained in a <a href="http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1635/">press release</a>, new stars form inside the nebula out of "dust grains in pockets just barely warmer than their extremely cold surroundings," which are shrunken and heated up by gravity.</p><p>But the gleaming young stars escape telescopes that see in visible light, radio waves, or infrared light because the cosmic dust either blocks or absorbs their bluish light. That's why Messier 78 is called a reflection nebula: it reflects and scatters the light of its hidden stars.</p><p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>Now, ESO's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope (VISTA) has sifted through the dust by using near-infrared light, which is why the ESO refers to it as a "dustbuster."</p><p>The result is a spectacular view of the young stars in the heart of the nebula casting a "bluish pall over their surroundings, while red fledgling stars peer out from their cocoons of cosmic dust."</p><p>Check out the ESO's video <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M98udfgd7g4#action=share">panning across the nebula</a> below:</p><p><div></div></p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/hubble-awesome-bubble-nebula-image-telescope-nasa-esa-2016-4">The Hubble captured an incredible image of a gigantic cosmic soap bubble</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="ViNmwxMzE6j41H8oTlmNcQwnMMlUvkrZ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A cosmic 'dustbuster' has revealed a breathtaking image of stars that were previously hidden from view

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Aliens! The recent discovery of molecular compounds integral to life on Earth in dusty clouds located deep in interstellar space is an encouraging sign that aliens could exist out in the universe.</p>
<p>All amino acids, the molecules that make up proteins in human cells, muscles, and other tissues, contain a type of organic compound called iso-propyl cyanide, which consists of carbon, nitrogen, and hydrogen atoms. I-propyl is an essential building block of these essential molecules. Without i-propyl cyanide, there would be no amino acids and no life on Earth as we know it.</p>
<p>Since amino acids were first discovered in meteorites in the early '70s, it's been clear that life on Earth got a little help from space. Just how much, however, remains unclear.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Now, scientists have taken one step further and discovered where i-propyl cyanide likely originates in our very own galaxy - the Milky Way.</p>
<p>Located 27,000 light years from Earth toward the center of our galaxy is one of the largest molecular clouds in the Milky Way, called Sagittarius B2. Molecular clouds are compact regions of dust that create the right environments for star formation, and therefore are also called stellar nurseries. And it's in Sagittarius B2, that a team of scientists recently discovered large amounts of i-propyl cyanide molecules.</p>
<p>Isopropyl cyanide is the most complex organic compound yet to be discovered in deep, interstellar space and the results are compelling for the possibility of life like ours in other neighboring solar systems within the Milky Way.</p>
<p>"Understanding the production of organic material at the early stages of star formation is critical to piecing together the gradual progression from simple molecules to potentially life-bearing chemistry," said Arnaud Belloche in a <a href="http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/09/new-molecule-found-space-connotes-life-origins">Cornell University press release</a>.</p>
<p>Belloche is the lead author of the paper documenting the scientists' results. The paper was published in the journal <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> on September 26.</p>
<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table full"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>To deconstruct the molecular make-up of Sagittarius B2, the scientists used the powerful array of radio telescopes in Chile called the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). With a price tag of $1.4 billion, ALMA is the most expensive ground-based telescope currently under construction.</p>
<p>Using the sensitive antennas of ALMA's radio telescopes, the scientists searched for the unique finger print of different molecules at certain radio wavelengths, which are longer than light waves in the visible regime and therefore cannot be seen with the naked eye. The scientists used 20 of ALMA's 66 antennae for their study.</p>
<p>Signs of potentially abundant life in other parts of the galaxy sounds like a good thing, but for one futurist it's not. Abundant microbial life is a bad sign that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nick-bostrom-hopes-theres-no-life-on-mars-2014-9">we will never become an interstellar civilization</a> - since these aliens would have had plenty of time to developed advanced space travel technologies, but we haven't heard one peep from them. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nick-bostrom-hopes-theres-no-life-on-mars-2014-9"></a></p>

You Searched For "interstellar nurseries" and got 8 results

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Side-by-side photos of the Orion Nebula show how powerful Webb's infrared cameras are. They spot star-forming clouds and gas cocoons Hubble can't see.

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We live next to the largest gas cloud in the Milky Way — and it's giving birth to new stars

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