A fantastic new class of star-forming nursery, known as floating evaporation gas globules, or frEGG for short, photographed with the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Located in the Cassiopeia constellation, this object is known as J025027.7 + 600849. Credit: ESA / Hubble and NASA, R. Sahai
Galaxies are well known as the birth places of stars and planets thanks to the overwhelming amount of dust and gas within them. Over time, the cold gas merges into molecular clouds, leading to the appearance of star-forming regions.
This image taken with the POT/ THAT Hubble space telescope represents a fantastic new class of star-forming nursery, known as floating evaporation gas globules, or frEGG for short. This object, known as J025027.7 + 600849, is located in the Cassiopeia constellation.
When a massive new star (or stars) begins to shine while still within the cold molecular cloud from which it formed, its energetic radiation can ionize the cloud’s hydrogen and create a large hot bubble of ionized gas. Surprisingly, within this bubble of hot gas around a nearby massive star are the frEGGs – dark, compact globules of dust and gas, some of which are also giving rise to low-mass stars. The boundary between the cold and dusty frEGG and the hot gas bubble looks like the bright purple / blue borders in this mesmerizing image.
Learning more about these strange objects can help astronomers understand how stars like our Sun form under external influences. In fact, our Sun may even have been born into a cursed one!
