A stunning new image captured by the Dark Energy Camera has revealed a dense, dark region of young stars actively forming in the Circinus West molecular cloud. Located about 2,500 light-years away, this vast stellar nursery stretches 180 light-years across and contains gas and dust amounting to 250,000 times the mass of the Sun.
The image, taken with the 570-megapixel DECam camera, shows infant stars igniting from cold, dense gas and dust, while outflows hurtle leftover material into space. The cloud’s opaque boundaries are dotted with young stellar objects, which stand out despite being covered in a thick layer of gas and dust.
Astronomers have gained valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying star formation and the evolution of molecular clouds thanks to the thriving population of young stars in Circinus West. The camera’s powerful resolution has allowed researchers to study the cloud’s dynamics and the processes that control galaxy evolution.
The image also reveals numerous Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, luminous red nebulosity patches created when fast-moving gas expelled by stars collides with slower-moving gas in the interstellar medium or surrounding molecular cloud. The cloud’s outflows provide an ideal environment for researching star life cycles, molecular cloud dynamics, and galaxy evolution.
The Circinus West molecular cloud offers a unique opportunity to study the processes that led to the emergence of the Universe from massive outflows that may even resemble the conditions under which the Solar System formed.
Source: https://www.azoquantum.com/News.aspx?newsID=10792