Close-up of the drama of star formation (annotated)

This very detailed image of the star-forming region NGC 6729 from ESO’s Very Large Telescope shows the dramatic effects of very young stars on the dust and gas from which they were born. The baby stars are invisible in this picture, being hidden behind dust clouds at the upper left of the picture, but material they are ejecting is crashing into the surroundings at speeds of that can be as high as one million kilometres per hour. This picture shows the probable directions of the ejected material and indicates the positions of the Herbig-Haro objects (marked as HH) where ejected material is creating glowing shockwaves.

Credit:

ESO/Sergey Stepanenko

About the Image

Id:eso1109c
Type:Observation
Release date:16 March 2011, 12:00
Related releases:eso1109
Size:2139 x 2140 px

About the Object

Name:Herbig–Haro object, NGC 6729
Type:Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Reflection
Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation
Distance:400 light years
Constellation:Corona Australis
Category:Nebulae
Stars

Image Formats

Large JPEG
1.1 MB
Screensize JPEG
183.4 KB

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Coordinates

Position (RA):19 1 34.25
Position (Dec):-37° 0' 19.50"
Field of view:7.18 x 7.19 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.0° right of vertical

Colours & filters

BandTelescope
Optical
SII
Very Large Telescope
FORS1
Optical
H-alpha
Very Large Telescope
FORS1