Thanks to the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) and the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have observed G286.21 + 0.17, a huge proto-cluster located about 8,000 light-years away in the constellation of Carina.
In this region, stars are forming in dense molecular clouds, as pockets of dust and gas collapse and ignite under intense heat and pressure.
ALMA observed the movements of turbulent molecular gas ( “firework streamers” in purple) as it falls into the cluster, forming dense nuclei that eventually create individual stars. The wind and the radiation of the stars, captured by the Hubble in infrared, are shown to us in yellow and red tones.
“This image shows stars in various stages of formation within this unique group,” said Yu Cheng, an astronomer at the University of Virginia and lead author of articles published in the Astrophysical Journal.
“This illustrates how dynamic and chaotic the process of star birth is,” said Jonathan Tan, a co-author of the paper. “It is surprising to think that our own Sun and our planets were once part of such a cosmic dance.”
In the image we can see about 1,000 newborn stars, including a large group of them emerging from the gas cloud, in the upper right corner of the image. The rest of the clouds appear to have enough energy to continue the stellar nursery for another million years or so .
“Combined with the Hubble data, we can clearly see the power of multiple wavelength observations to help us understand these fundamental universal processes,” the authors state.
Referencia: Yu Cheng et al, Gas Kinematics of the Massive Protocluster G286.21+0.17 Revealed by ALMA, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab879f
Yu Cheng et al. Stellar Variability in a Forming Massive Star Cluster, The Astrophysical Journal (2020). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab93bc
