This new photo of the reflection nebula NGC 1333 was taken in celebration of the 33rd anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990. The image offers a peek into the chaotic and messy star-formation process. For starters it shows that stars are not born in isolation but in batches. They are built from cold interstellar hydrogen that is laced with soot-like dust. Veils of dust block much of Hubble’s view into the stellar cauldron. But young bright stars do poke out, like seeing sunlight pierce through clouds on a largely overcast day.
This Hubble image shows NGC 1333, a reflection nebula located 1,000 light-years away in the northern constellation of Perseus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI.
NGC 1333 lies at a distance of approximately 1,000 light-years away from Earth and can bee seen within the northern constellation of Perseus.
Also known as Ced 16 and LBN 741, this reflection nebula was first discovered by the German astronomer Eduard Schönfeld in 1855.
NGC 1333 harbors two groups of newly formed stars less than 2 million years old.
“Hubble’s colorful view unveils an effervescent cauldron of glowing gases and pitch-black dust stirred up and blown around by several hundred newly forming stars embedded within the dark cloud,” Hubble astronomers said.
“Even then, Hubble just scratches the surface; most of the star-birthing firestorm is hidden behind clouds of fine dust — essentially soot — that are thicker toward the bottom of the image.”
“The black areas of the image are not empty space, but are filled with obscuring dust.”
To capture the new image of NGC 1333, Hubble peered through a veil of dust on the edge of a giant cloud of cold molecular hydrogen — the raw material for fabricating new stars and planets under the relentless pull of gravity.
“The image underscores the fact that star formation is a messy process in a rambunctious Universe,” the astronomers said.
“Ferocious stellar winds, likely from the bright blue star at the top of the image, are blowing through a curtain of dust. The fine dust scatters the starlight at blue wavelengths.”
“Farther down, another bright super-hot star shines through filaments of obscuring dust, looking like the Sun shining through scattered clouds.”
“A diagonal string of fainter accompanying stars looks reddish because the dust is filtering their starlight, allowing more of the red light to get through.”
“The bottom of the picture presents a keyhole peek deep into the dark nebula,” they added.
“Hubble captures the reddish glow of ionized hydrogen. It looks like the finale of a fireworks display, with several overlapping events.”
“This is caused by pencil-thin jets shooting out from newly forming stars outside the frame of view.”
“These stars are surrounded by circumstellar disks, which may eventually produce planetary systems, and powerful magnetic fields that direct two parallel beams of hot gas deep into space, like a double lightsaber from science fiction films.”
“They sculpt patterns on the hydrogen cocoon, like laser lightshow tracings. The jets are a star’s birth announcement.”
“This view offers an example of the time when our own Sun and planets formed inside such a dusty molecular cloud, 4.6 billion years ago.”
“Our Sun didn’t form in isolation but was instead embedded inside a mosh pit of frantic stellar birth, perhaps even more energetic and massive than NGC 1333.”
