Theos-Talk Archives (February 2004 Message tt00065)

Spitzer Space Telescope Sends Rosy Valentine
02.12.04 



This stellar nursery, resembling a Valentine's Day rosebud, was 
imaged by the Spitzer Space Telescope. 

Valentines come in all shapes and sizes from paper hearts to 
candlelit dinners -- and now stellar nurseries resembling shimmering 
pink rosebuds. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the 
Space Infrared Telescope Facility, has captured with its infrared 
eyes a pink and green rose-like picture of a cluster of newborn stars 
known as a nebula.

The Valentine's Day image is available online at 
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu and http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/
catalog/PIA05266 .

"The picture is more than just pretty," said Dr. Thomas Megeath, 
principal investigator for the latest observations and an astronomer 
at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, 
Mass. "It helps us understand how stars form in the crowded 
environments of stellar nurseries."

Located 3,330 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus and 
spanning 10 light-years across, the rosebud-shaped nebula, numbered 
NGC 7129, is home to some 130 young stars. Our own Sun is believed to 
have grown up in a similar family setting.

Previous images of NGC 7129 taken by visible telescopes show a 
smattering of hazy stars spotted against a luminescent cloud. 
Spitzer, by sensing the infrared radiation or heat of the cluster, 
produces a much more detailed snapshot. Highlighted in false colors 
are the hot dust particles and gases, respectively, which form a nest 
around the stars. The pink rosebud contains adolescent stars that 
blew away blankets of hot dust, while the green stem holds newborn 
stars whose jets torched surrounding gases.

Outside of the primary nebula, younger proto-stars can also be seen 
for the first time. "We can now see a few stars beyond the nebula 
that were previously hidden in the dark cloud," said Megeath. 

In addition, the findings go beyond what can be seen in the image. By 
analyzing the amount and type of infrared light emitted by nearly 
every star in the cluster, scientists were able to determine which 
ones support the swirling rings of debris, called circumstellar 
discs, which eventually coalesce to form planets. Roughly half of the 
stars observed were found to harbor discs. 

These observations will ultimately help astronomers determine how 
stellar nurseries shape the development of planetary systems similar 
to our own. 

Launched on August 25, 2003, from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, 
Florida, the Spitzer Space Telescope is the fourth of NASA's Great 
Observatories, a program that also includes the Compton Gamma Ray 
Observatory, Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope. 

JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Office of 
Space Science, Washington. Science operations are conducted at the 
Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in 
Pasadena. JPL is a division of Caltech.

Additional information about the Spitzer Space Telescope is available 
at http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu .

with greetings Christina