European Space Observatory released an image of the birth and death of a star in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is the closest galaxy to the Milky Way. In an interesting picture taken by the European Space Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, the birth and death of a star in this galaxy can be seen. The image shows clouds of gas and dust where hot new stars are being born as they sculpt their surroundings into different shapes. The image also reveals the stellar death of a star characterized by filaments created by a supernova explosion, according to a press report.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is located at a distance of 160 000 light-years from us in the constellation of Dorado. The galaxy is actively forming new stars, some of which are so bright that they can be seen from Earth through the naked eye. One of these stars includes the Tarantula Nebula. The new image was taken when the telescope was scanning an area called NGC 2035, sometimes nicknamed the Dragon's Head Nebula.
This area, known as a HII region, is a large, low-density cloud of partially ionized gas in which star formation frequently takes place. It has clouds of gas that glow due to the energetic radiation given off by young stars. The electrons from atoms within the gas are striped off by this radiation and then recombined with other atoms to release light. The clouds of gas also contain dark clumps of dust, which absorb this emitted light, creating weaving lanes and dark shapes across the nebula.
The filamentary shapes that can be seen to the left of the image portray stellar death. The shapes were created by a supernova explosion, often referred to as the most violent event that can take place in the Universe. These explosions are so bright that sometimes they outshine their entire host galaxy and slowly fade away from view in the course of several weeks or months.
The image doesn't do full justice to the size of these clouds, which are several hundred light years across and are located far beyond our galaxy. Though the Large Magellanic Cloud is very large, it is comparatively smaller compared to the Milky Way. It spans just 14 000 light-years, which is about ten times smaller than our galaxy.
