Glowing stellar nurseries*
Colour composite image of RCW120. It reveals how an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps where new stars are then formed. The 870-micron submillimetre-wavelength data were taken with the LABOCA camera on the 12-m Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope. Here, the submillimetre emission is shown as the blue clouds surrounding the reddish glow of the ionised gas (shown with data from the SuperCosmos H-alpha survey). The image also contains data from the Second Generation Digitized Sky Survey (I-band shown in blue, R-band shown in red).
This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop
Credit:ESO/APEX/DSS2/ SuperCosmos/ Deharveng(LAM)/ Zavagno(LAM)
About the Image
Id: | eso0840a |
Type: | Observation |
Release date: | 11 November 2008 |
Related releases: | eso0840 |
Size: | 1872 x 2348 px |
About the Object
Name: | RCW120 |
Type: | Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation |
Distance: | 4500 light years |
Constellation: | Scorpius |
Category: | Nebulae |
Mounted Image
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 17 12 24.03 |
Position (Dec): | -38° 28' 11.49" |
Field of view: | 31.40 x 39.38 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 1.8° right of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
---|---|---|
Optical B | Digitized Sky Survey 2 N/A | |
Millimeter Submillimetre | 870 μm | Atacama Pathfinder Experiment LABOCA |
Optical Pseudogreen (R+I) | Digitized Sky Survey 2 N/A | |
Optical R |
Other
N/A | |
Optical R | Digitized Sky Survey 2 N/A |