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Astronomers get first glimpse of new stars
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-27 15:21
Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered a perfectly
decorated Christmas tree 2,500 light years from earth. Scientists at the
University of Arizona's Steward Observatory said the remarkable star cluster
gives them the first glimpse of newborn stars acting just as predicted -
patterned geometrically and spaced according to density, temperature and
gravity.
Newborn stars,
hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the
Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The newly
revealed infant stars appear as pink and red specks toward the center of
the image. [NASA] | "If you look at the very young stars in the cluster and the spacing between
them, it isn't random spacing," said Erick T. Young, an astronomer at the
Steward Observatory. "They're all about the same distance apart."
The stars are less than 100,000 years old and located in a nebula in the
Monoceros, or Unicorn, constellation. The constellation is visible in the winter
sky to the east of Orion.
The images captured by the space telescope reinforce the basic theory that
the gravity and density of the dust and gas cloud are determining factors in the
formation of stars.
"This is the first really good demonstration that the theory works on
something like a star cluster," Young said.
The observations reinforce British astronomer James Jeans' early 1900s
gravitational collapse theory and could yield clues to the formation of the
solar system.
"We believe this process of forming stars in a cluster was exactly the same
thing that happened with our very own sun 4 1/2 billion years ago," Young said.
"It tells us a lot about the history of our own solar system."
The "Christmas Tree Cluster" is about 1 to 3 million years old and too young
for planets to have formed.
The observations were made a year ago but have just been published in the
Astronomical Journal after a year of research.
The scientists used images collected with a University
of Arizona-built infrared camera and another device on the NASA craft developed
by the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory to construct the
images.
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