Using the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, astronomers have captured an image of part of the gigantic nebula Gum 56.
This image snapped by the Wide Field Imager on the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope reveals a detailed view of part of the Prawn Nebula, also known as Gum 56. It shows clumps of hot new-born stars nestled in among the clouds that make up the nebula. Image credit: ESO.
Gum 56, also known as IC 4628 or the Prawn Nebula, is a dense concentration of gas and dust ionized by the star cluster Trumpler 24. It lies within the more diffuse nebula RCW 113.
The nebula is located in the constellation Scorpius and is about 6,000 light-years away. It has a diameter of 250 light-years, but despite its huge size it has often been overlooked by visual observers due to its faintness, and because most of the light it emits is at wavelengths not visible to the human eye.
Its official name honors its discoverer, the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who published a catalogue of H II regions in 1955.
H II regions such as Gum 56 are huge, low density clouds containing a large amount of ionized hydrogen.
A large portion of the ionization in the nebula is done by two O-type stars, which are hot blue-white stars, also known as blue giants.
This type of star is very rare as the very large mass of blue giants means that they do not live for long.
After only roughly a million years these stars will collapse in on themselves and end their lives as supernovae, as will many of the other massive stars within the nebula.
Besides the many newborn stars nestled in Gum 56, this object is still filled with enough dust and gas to create an even newer generation of stars.
The regions of the nebula giving birth to new stars are visible in the image as dense clouds.
The material forming these new stars includes the remains of the most massive stars from an older generation that have already ended their lives and ejected their material in supernova explosions.
