Gazing into the endless universe has always been a deep-rooted instinct of mankind. Astronomers have been focused on various areas of interest over the centuries. The star-forming regions in the space are one among this list. The Hubble Space Telescope has snapped a spectacular view of one such star-forming region called “ Celestial Snow Angel ” in our Milky Way galaxy. Well, that’s the fancy name scientists have given to a bipolar emission nebula called Sharples 2-106 (or S106 for short) since it looks like a snow angel in deep space.S106 is located nearly 2,000 light-years away in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan).
The massive, only 100,000 years old central star called S106 IR ( Infrared Source 4 or IRS 4) is shrouded in dust at the centre of the image and is responsible for the surrounding gas cloud’s hourglass or butterfly shape and the turbulence visible within. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glow blue in this image, forming the angel’s wings. The detailed inspection of the nebula has also revealed more than six hundred brown dwarfs which may someday create a small cluster. Due to the low mass of these failed stars, they are incapable of producing sustained energy through nuclear fusion like our Sun does.
– Saifudheen
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Processing & Copyright: Utkarsh Mishra
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