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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

New Image: Rosy Glow of Starbirth, Just in Time for Spring

New Image: Rosy Glow of Starbirth, Just in Time for Spring

by ANNE MINARD on MARCH 30, 2011

Star cluster and surrounding nebula NGC 371. Credit: ESO/Manu Mejias

Just in time for the start of spring, the ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured this stunning new image of a region of glowing hydrogen surrounding the star cluster NGC 371.

Regions of ionized hydrogen like this one — known as HII regions — are exploding with the births of new stars. NGC 371 lies in our neighboring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. It’s an example of an open cluster; its stars all originate from the same diffuse HII region, and over time the majority of the hydrogen is used up by star formation — leaving behind a shell of hydrogen such as the one in this image, along with a cluster of hot young stars.

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