New Stunning Image of Large Magellanic Cloud Reveals Fiery Star Birth and Death

Astronomers are learning a little bit more about the fiery drama of star birth and death with a new, spectacular image from ESO's Very Large Telescope. They've captured a picture of the Large Magellanic Cloud, an object that's actively forming new stars in regions that are so bright that some can even be seen from Earth with the naked eye.

This latest image is part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program. This initiative aims at producing pictures of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes for the purposes of education and public outreach. That said, all images can also be used for science observations, telling astronomers a little bit more about the Universe.

The specific area that the new image captures, though, is called NGC 2035, sometimes also nicknamed the Dragon's Head Nebula. This area is located just 160,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Dorado. It consists of clouds of gas that glow due to the energetic radiation given off by young stars. This radiation strips electrons from atoms within the gas, which eventually recombine with other atoms and release light. Mixed in with the gas are dark clumps of dust that absorb rather than emit light. This creates the waves and dark shapes across the nebula.

Yet while this is a region of star birth, there's also evidence of star death. The filamentary shapes to the left of the image are created by one of the most violent events that can happen in the Universe--a supernova explosion. These explosions are so bright that they can sometimes outshine their entire host galaxy before fading from view over the course of several weeks or months. The remains of this explosion is called a remnant and the one shown in this particular picture is called SNR 0536-67.6

Want to learn more about the ESO program? Check it out here.