Baby Stars Found in Galactic Center

Space.com on Yahoo ^ | 6/13/09 | Andrea Thompson

[NormsRevenge]

PASADENA, CALIF. — Baby stars have at last been found in the harsh environment at the center of the Milky Way, astronomers said here this week at the 214th meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

These are "stars that have just ignited their core and they are just starting to produce light. So it is a very early phase in the star formation process," said team member Solange Ramirez of NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute at Caltech.

The heart of our galaxy is an extreme environment, with fierce stellar winds, shock waves and a core supermassive black hole all packed into a region 600 light-years across. While this is but a fraction of the total diameter of the galaxy, which is 100,000 light-years across, the core is stuffed with 10 percent of the gas in the galaxy and a bounty of stars.

Astronomers have long known that stars are born in this chaotic environment, as evidenced by clusters of massive adolescent stars and clouds of charged gas – a sign that new stars are beginning to ignite.

[NormsRevenge]

Three baby stars are seen in the center of our Milky Way galaxy in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope released by NASA June 10, 2009. The three stars are the first to be discovered in the region -- previous attempts to find them were unsuccessful because there is so much dust standing between us and our galaxy's core. Spitzer was able to find the newborns with its sharp infrared eyes, which can cut through dust. REUTERS/NASA-CAL /Handout

[wastedyears]

Ping

[JRandomFreeper]

I told you to take it to the vet and get it fixed, but NOOOO! Now we've got a bunch of little stars floating around and who is going to clean up after them?

/johnny

[ClearCase_guy]

Somewhere in the galactic core, there are a bunch of pushy stage mothers saying “You can do it! Smile! Show your teeth! You’re a star!”

[rom]

Guess Planned Parenthood doesn’t have an office in the Galactic Core.