The region around the massive star IRS2

Colour composite image of the central part of the stellar cluster RCW 38, around the young, massive star IRS2, taken with the NACO adaptive optics instrument attached to ESO's Very Large Telescope. Thanks to this image, astronomers were able to discover that IRS2 is in fact a twin system composed of two almost equally massive stars. The astronomers also found a handful of protostars – the faintly luminous precursors to fully realised stars – and dozens of other candidate stars that have eked out an existence here despite the powerful ultraviolet light radiated by IRS2.

The image is based on near-infrared data taken through three different filters (J, H and K). The field of view is about 1 arcminute across.

Kredit:

ESO

O snímku

Id:eso0929a
Typ:Pozorování
Datum zveřejnění:19. srpna 2009
Související články:eso0929
Související oznámení:ann15076
Velikost:947 x 934 px

O objektu

Jméno:RCW 38
Typ:Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster
Vzdálenost:5500 světelné roky
Constellation:Vela
Kategorie:Star Clusters

Image Formats

největší JPEG
156,1 KB

Pozadí

1024x768
135,8 KB
1280x1024
202,6 KB
1600x1200
274,8 KB
1920x1200
310,5 KB
2048x1536
408,4 KB

Souřadnice

Position (RA):8 59 5.77
Position (Dec):-47° 30' 37.56"
Field of view:0.85 x 0.84 arcminutes
Orientace:Sever je 0.0° pravá od svislé osy

Barvy & filtry

PásmoDalekohled
Infračervený
J
Very Large Telescope
NACO
Infračervený
H
Very Large Telescope
NACO
Infračervený
K
Very Large Telescope
NACO