IRAS 13481-6124 and its cradle

The object IRAS 13481-6124 (the bright "star" upper left), which consists of a young central star, about twenty times the mass of our Sun and five times its radius, surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon, is the first massive baby star for which astronomers could obtain an image of a dusty disc closely encircling it, providing direct evidence that massive stars do form in the same way as their smaller brethren — and closing an enduring debate.

From archival images obtained by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope (seen here) as well as from observations done with the APEX 12-metre sub-millimetre telescope, astronomers discovered the presence of a jet, hinting at the presence of a disc. This was then confirmed by observations made with the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer.

Créditos:

ESO/Spitzer/NASA/JPL/S. Kraus

Sobre a imagem

Id:eso1029c
Tipo:Observação
Data de divulgação:14 de Julho de 2010 às 19:00
Notícias relacionadas:eso1029
Tamanho:1425 x 1503 px

Sobre o objeto

Nome:IRAS 13481-6124
Tipo:Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk
Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar Object
Distância:10000 anos-luz
Constellation:Centaurus
Categoria:Stars

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Coordenadas

Position (RA):13 50 48.49
Position (Dec):-61° 45' 41.77"
Field of view:28.98 x 30.57 arcminutes
Orientação:O norte está a 0.3° à direita da vertical

Cores e filtros

BandaComprimento de ondaTelescópio
Infravermelho
Near-IR
3.6 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infravermelho
Mid-IR
4.5 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infravermelho
Mid-IR
5.8 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infravermelho
Mid-IR
8.0 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)