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| Star Formation Region Gum 41. |
This
new image from ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile reveals a cloud of hydrogen
called Gum 41. In the middle of this little-known nebula, brilliant hot young
stars are giving off energetic radiation that causes the surrounding hydrogen
to glow with a characteristic red hue.
This area of the southern sky, in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur), is home to many bright nebulae, each associated with hot new-born stars that formed out of the clouds of hydrogen gas. The intense radiation from the stellar new-borns excites the remaining hydrogen around them, making the gas glow in the distinctive shade of red typical of star-forming regions. Another famous example of this phenomenon is the Lagoon Nebula, a vast cloud that glows in similar bright shades of scarlet.
