December 8, 2011
There are stars whose light will never reach us, worlds we will never touch, mysteries we may never solve.
Sh2-239: Celestial Impasto
Birthday · December 8, 2011
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APOD published December 8, 2011. Credit: Adam Block. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The cosmic brush of star formation composed this alluring mix of dust and dark nebulae. Cataloged as Sh2-239 and LDN 1551, the region lies near the southern end of the Taurus molecular cloud complex some 450 light-years distant. Stretching for nearly 3 light-years, the canvas abounds with signs of embedded young stellar objects driving dynamic outflows into the surrounding medium. Included near the center of the frame, a compact, tell-tale red jet of shocked hydrogen gas is near the position of infrared source IRS5, known to be a system of protostars surrounded by dust disks. Just below it are the broader, brighter wings of HH 102, one of the region's many Herbig-Haro objects, nebulosities associated with newly born stars. Estimates indicate that the star forming LDN 1551 region contains a total amount of material equivalent to about 50 times the mass of the Sun.
Image credit: Adam Block