Click on image for larger version.
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NGC 7129 is a star-forming region that contains many interesting
features. Astronomers estimate that many of the bright stars
shown here are younger than 1 million years old! These "baby" stars
are very energetic and emit copious amounts of radiation that break
apart (photodissociate) clouds of natal gas that surrounds them. One
edge of this newly formed cavity glows pink due to the excited
hydrogen gas in the region. In addition, a small number of very red
structures indicate regions where new stars are forming (but are
not yet visible directly). These regions are often outflows of gas
called Herbig Haro (HH) objects. (The crescent shaped object near
the top of the nebula is HH103). Finally, energetic regions like this
can often produce molecular masers. A maser (like a laser) is a coherent
signal of light- generally at microwave wavelengths. In this case the molecules
in this gas region are excited (vibrate) by high-energy photons and
re-emit light (microwaves) to us in a preferential manner. The facinating
thing is that the molecules in question are quite important (to us)- H2O (water!).
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Equipment
20in RC Optical Systems telescope operating at f/8.4Paramount ME Robotic Telescope Mount
SBIG ST10XME CCD camera with color filter wheel
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color production was used to create this image.
Luminance = 135 minutes
binned 1x1 |
Minimum credit line: Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
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Updated: 06/30/2004