Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have produced a spectacularly detailed image of a bubble of hot hydrogen gas called Sharpless 2-305 (Sh 2-305 for short).
This image, taken by the FORS2 instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, shows the emission nebula Sharpless 2-305. Image credit: ESO.
Sh 2-305, otherwise known as LBN 1048 and RCW 8, is located in the constellation of Puppis, in the Perseus arm of our Milky Way Galaxy.
“Such gas clouds are known as emission nebulae, or HII regions,” ESO astronomers said.
“The radiation in question is in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum and is thought to emanate from at least two O-type stars, and likely several others.”
“This stellar class is the brightest and hottest that we know of — such stars can be up to 90 times as massive as the Sun, and an incredible one million times as bright.”
“Together with five neighboring bubbles, Sh 2-305 belongs to a giant complex of dense clouds of dust and gas and, on a larger scale, an enormous ring called the GS234-02 star-forming supershell.”
The new image of Sh 2-305 was captured using the FORS2 (FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2) instrument installed on VLT at Paranal Observatory in Chile. Four filters were used to sample various wavelengths.
“This image was obtained under the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach,” the astronomers explained.
“The program makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations.”
“All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.”
