Astronomers Capture New Image of Dark Clouds Creating Brilliant Stars

Scientists have taken a closer look at a dark cloud found in a loose star cluster called the Scorpius-Centaurus OB association. Now, they've captured a spectacular new image with the help of the Wide Field Imager at the La Silla Observatory that reveals a bit more about the future of dark clouds.

The dark cloud in question is called Lupus 4. It's located about 400 light-years from Earth and straddles the constellations of Lupus and Norma. It's actually just one of several affiliated dark clouds found in the region. These clouds are actually prime targets for studying how stars grow up together before going their separate ways since the sun is thought to have started out in a similar environment.

The best studied dark cloud is actually Lupus 3, which is a neighbor to Lupus 4. At least 40 fledgling stars have formed in Lupus 3 over the last three million years, and are on the cusps of igniting their fusion furnaces. The main energy source in these baby stars, known as T Tauri stars, is the heat generated by their gravitational contraction.

In Lupus 4, though, there are very few T Tauri stars. Yet it's likely that this region will form stars in the future, especially due to the dense, core of material in the cloud. This, in particular, hints that Lupus 4 is younger than Lupus 3.

Currently, scientists aren't sure exactly how many stars will start to shin from within Lupus 4. Yet there's a general agreement on a figure of around 250 times the mass of the sun. This means that, eventually, the cloud will produce plenty of bright stars in the future. By studying this cloud, researchers can learn more about the process of star formation and perhaps gain insight on how our own sun first came into being.