A stellar ‘caterpillar’ in the midst of a metamorphosis has been spotted by astronomers. The light-year-long cosmic squiggle is currently collecting material from an envelope of gas surrounding it. Astronomers are now keen to see what will emerge from the protostar, which is in a very early evolutionary stage. A previous study has called the object, which lies 4,500 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus, a ‘tadpole in an interstellar pond.’ Harsh winds from extremely bright stars are blasting ultraviolet radiation at this ‘wanna-be’ star, named IRAS 20324+4057, and sculpting the gas and dust into its long shape. The culprits are 65 of the hottest, brightest known stars, classified as O-type stars, located 15 light-years away from the knot, towards the right edge of the image. These stars, along with 500 highly luminous B-type stars, make up what is called the Cygnus OB2 association. However, astronomers believe that the envelope of gas surrounding the protostar is being eroded by the radiation from Cygnus OB2. Protostars in this region should eventually become young stars with final masses about one to ten times that of our sun. If the eroding
radiation from the nearby bright stars destroys the gas envelope before the protostars finish collecting mass, their final masses could be cut. According to spectroscopic observations of the central star within IRAS 20324+4057, the protostar is still collecting material quite heavily from its outer envelope, hoping to bulk up in mass. What will emerge from this metamorphosis remains to be seen. ‘Only time will tell if the formed star will be a “heavyweight” or a “lightweight” with respect to its mass,’ said the Hubble team. This image, released this week the Hubble’s Space Telescope Science Institute, is based on data in green and infrared wavelengths gathered by the Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2006. It also combines data from ground-based hydrogen data collected by the Isaac Newton Telescope in 2003 as part of the IPHAS H-alpha survey.
Amazing and mind boggling, hard to believe but confirmed by the greatest telescope launched into space, hovering over earth at about 400kms, in its orbit. Universe is so vast that it has taken light 4500 years to travel to the Hubble Telescope. Imagine that light travels 300,000kms, in one second. But such events find no place in Divine texts, simply because there were no telescopes around that time. Had the telescope been there, it was not possible to know, as this particular event happened long long time ago.
Some example of the vastness of the universe. In our galaxy alone , there are over 100 Billion stars and there are about one TRILLION Planets. There are over 200 Billion visible galaxies in the universe. For every visible galaxy, there are 10 galaxies not visible. The bing bang, which is beleived to be the beginning of the universe is now considered to be a local event, meaning that what we conceive to be the entire universe is merely our neighborhood, and that the universe is endless. Such is the creation of almighty Allah. ALLAH HO AKBAR
Al hamdo lillah hay rabbill Alamein.
The God of the universes and not the God of this world or that world. Allah o Akbar.
That is why I reverted to Islam.
May Allah continue to bless and guide you to stay in Islam for ever- Ameen. Great brother james. Thanks for accepting Islam and writting.
the astronomers observe progress of the new star. i a pakistani recalls the poetry of her nations dreamer allama iqbal who would i am sure would say to the new emerging star that cling to the tree of life and hope for spring to come…..paivasta reh shajur saae umeed e bahar rakh. faiz ahmed faiz would i am sure add that….hum dekhein gaae…we will see. parveen shakir would utter that…koubaku phail gaee baat sanashaiee ki…everyone knows about the friendship.zehra nigah would recite…shuaaoooan mei sitara dekhti thi…she could see the star in the light rays.
so much for poetry ….what lofty thoughts from the so called third world…..
the intellect is not third in the world but immeasurable.
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