W40’S Cradle of Stars
January 14, 2013
Title W40’s cradle of stars
Released 07/01/2013 12:00 pm
Copyright ESA and SPIRE & PACS consortia, Ph. André (CEA Saclay) for Gould’s Belt Key Programme Consortia
Description
Six hundred newly forming stars are crowded into these colourful filaments of dust that form a stellar nursery seen by ESA’s Herschel space observatory.
The nebulous blue area, known as W40 or Sharpless 2-64, is roughly 1000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila, and is about 25 light-years across.
This image was featured as Space science image of the week on 7 January 2013.
