A recent image captured by ESA's and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has identified a veritable stardust factory . It is an area of the Iris nebula or NGC 7023 , illuminated by the light of a nearby star, HD 200775 , and similar to a large cotton cloud.
Stardust factories are made up of fine particles of solid matter, with a variety of sizes, between ten and one hundred times smaller than the grains of dust that we can find at home. Stardust is a problem for astronomical observations because it makes it difficult to see through telescopes . However, their study allows astronomers to decipher the possible "ingredients" used for star formation .
The nebula NGC 7023 was discovered by the famous astronomer Sir William Herschel in 1794 in the constellation Cepheus, approximately 1,400 light years from Earth. Astronomers are currently analyzing their chemical elements through Hubble's NICMOS infrared camera.
