NASA has recently released this gorgeous 'dossier' of images that portrayed the North America Nebula. They are all by the Spitzer infrared space telescope, and highlight the beauty of this stellar cluster - unfortunately - little known.
"One of the things that makes me so excited when I look at this picture is how different from those in visible light, and what we can see more than the visible and infrared images," says Luisa Rebull of the science center that Spitzer guide, located in Pasadena, California. Rebull is the author of an article on precisely these images published Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. "The image of Spitzer - continues Rebull - reveals in great detail dust and young stars present. "
of Rebull's team has identified more than 2000 new young stars in the region. With the images in visible light, astronomers were able to discern just 200. The others were hidden or enveloped by dense clouds of interstellar gas and dust in which they are born.
These images provide us with meticulous information on all the early stages of stellar evolution cycle, from early years until the star enters the adult phase, through the time it becomes the light for a new planetary system.
The North America nebula is a dense system of mysteries: the first is its hub, or better, the source from which it come to life. There were in fact identified the adult stars who have made this planetary nebula. In the Orion nebula, for example, they are grouped in an area called "keystone" to the form similar to an asterisk. Spitzer, as well as other telescopes, suggests that these older stars are hidden behind the region known as the Gulf of Mexico.
The distance that separates us from the nebula in question rhyme a mystery. The data that is considered most likely indicates a distance of 1800 light years.
Of course, it is surprising that a nebula so little known outside the scientific community may have some features so sweet and beautiful. But after these images will not be so unknown.
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