September 4, 2010
The same forces that sculpt nebulae and spin galaxies into existence were at work the day you were born.
Young Suns of NGC 7129
Birthday · September 4, 2010
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APOD published September 4, 2010. Credit: Ken Crawford. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Young suns still lie within dusty NGC 7129, some 3,000 light-years away toward the royal constellation Cepheus. While these stars are at a relatively tender age, only a few million years old, it is likely that our own Sun formed in a similar stellar nursery some five billion years ago. Most noticeable in the sharp, (zoomable) image are the lovely bluish dust clouds that reflect the youthful starlight, but the smaller, deep red crescent shapes are also markers of energetic, young stellar objects. Known as Herbig-Haro objects, their shape and color is characteristic of glowing hydrogen gas shocked by jets streaming away from newborn stars. Ultimately the natal gas and dust in the region will be dispersed, the stars drifting apart as the loose cluster orbits the center of the Galaxy. At the estimated distance of NGC 7129, this telescopic view spans about 40 light-years. Take a short survey about viewing astronomy images on mobile devices.
Image credit: Ken Crawford