Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery

NASA ^ | December 11, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Stars are sometimes born in the midst of chaos. About 3 million years ago in the nearby galaxy M33, a large cloud of gas spawned dense internal knots which gravitationally collapsed to form stars. NGC 604 was so large, however, it could form enough stars to make a globular cluster. Many young stars from this cloud are visible in the above image from the Hubble Space Telescope, along with what is left of the initial gas cloud. Some stars were so massive they have already evolved and exploded in a supernova. The brightest stars that are left emit light so energetic that they create one of the largest cloud of ionized hydrogen gas known, comparable to the Tarantula Nebula in our Milky Way's close neighbor, the Large Magellanic Cloud.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing: Donald Waid]

[SunkenCiv]

Apologies in advance in case this is a double post, the system is doing that, not me.

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[SunkenCiv]

Apologies in advance in case this is a double post, the system is doing that, not me.

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

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Doubles that Gorgeous are fine with me! :-)

[TheOldLady]

NGC 604: Giant Stellar Nursery Scary Monster