Using the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have obtained a spectacular image of a cosmic “flower”: the nebula surrounding the young star cluster NGC 2040, which looks like a giant fire rose.
NGC 2040 is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud: a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way located 160,000 light-years from Earth. The cluster is part of a more massive structure known as LH 88. It represents one of the largest active star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Over the next million years, thousands of new stars will be born in this region.
NGC 2040 itself belongs to the type of clusters known as OB-associations, as it contains more than a dozen very massive stars of spectral types O and B. The lives of these stars are short — only a few million years, during which time they get very hot before exploding as supernovae.
The nebula surrounding the cluster is mostly composed of hydrogen and oxygen. When their atoms are excited by ultraviolet radiation from nearby massive stars, they emit light. Saturated red and orange correspond to hydrogen, light blue to oxygen. The bright white color indicates areas where both elements are found in abundance.
The bright stars captured in the Gemini South image are far apart, but their motions in space are similar, suggesting they share a common origin. The layered nebular structures are the remnants of already dead luminaries. The delicate rose leaves were formed by both shock waves from supernovae and the stellar wind of O- and B-class stars.
Most stars in the Milky Way, including the Sun, likely formed in open clusters like NGC 2040. When O- and B-class stars end their lives as supernovae, they will enrich the cluster with elements such as carbon, oxygen, and iron. Together with hydrogen, these elements provide the necessary ingredients for the formation of new stars, planets, and perhaps even life.
Overall, the fire rose photographed by Gemini South, tells a story of death and rebirth as the dust of dead luminaries becomes the seeds of new star systems. And like a real rose, its beauty is extremely fleeting. In a few million years (a very brief blink of cosmic time), the gas and dust will either collect into young stars that will embark on their own journey through the galaxy, or they will be ejected into interstellar space.
Earlier we reported on how the Gemini South telescope photographed a dangerous asteroid that could collide with Earth in 2032.
According to NOIRLab
