{"id":14159,"date":"2017-04-07T09:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T13:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14159"},"modified":"2017-04-07T01:33:01","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T05:33:01","slug":"eso-alma-radio-telescope-array-captures-stellar-fireworks-in-orion-nebula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=14159","title":{"rendered":"ESO: ALMA radio telescope array captures stellar fireworks in Orion Nebula"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report from\u00a0ESO<\/a>\u00a0(European Southern Observatory):<\/p>\n

ALMA Captures Dramatic Stellar Fireworks<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images as they explored the firework-like debris from the birth of a group of massive stars, demonstrating that star formation can be a violent and explosive process too.<\/p>\n

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Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains of a 500-year-old explosion as they explored the firework-like debris from the birth of a group of massive stars, demonstrating that star formation can be a violent and explosive process too. The background image includes optical and near-infrared imaging from both the Gemini South and ESO Very Large Telescope. The famous Trapezium Cluster of hot young stars appears towards the bottom of this image. The ALMA data do not cover the full image shown here. [Larger images<\/a>.]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>1350 light years away, in the constellation of Orion<\/a> (the Hunter), lies a dense and active star formation<\/a> factory called the Orion Molecular Cloud 1<\/a> (OMC-1), part of the same complex as the famous Orion Nebula<\/a>. Stars are born when a cloud of gas hundreds of times more massive than our Sun begins to collapse under its own gravity. In the densest regions, protostars ignite and begin to drift about randomly. Over time, some stars begin to fall toward a common centre of gravity, which is usually dominated by a particularly large protostar \u2014 and if the stars have a close encounter before they can escape their stellar nursery, violent interactions can occur.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/cdn.eso.org\/videos\/medium_podcast\/eso1711a.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n

Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. This ESOcast Light takes a quick look at the important facts.<\/em><\/p>\n

About 100 000 years ago, several protostars<\/a> started to form deep within the OMC-1. Gravity began to pull them together with ever-increasing speed, until 500 years ago two of them finally clashed. Astronomers are not sure whether they merely grazed each other or collided head-on, but either way it triggered a powerful eruption that launched other nearby protostars and hundreds of colossal streamers of gas and dust out into interstellar space at over 150 kilometres per second. This cataclysmic interaction released as much energy as our Sun emits in 10 million years.<\/p>\n

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Stellar explosions are most often associated with supernovae, the spectacular deaths of stars. But new ALMA observations of the Orion Nebula complex provide insights into explosions at the other end of the stellar life cycle, star birth. Astronomers captured these dramatic images of the remains of a 500-year-old explosion as they explored the firework-like debris from the birth of a group of massive stars, demonstrating that star formation can be a violent and explosive process too. The background is an infrared image from the HAWK-I camera on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. The ALMA data only cover the region marked by the box. [Larger images<\/a>.]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>Fast forward 500 years, and a team of astronomers led by John Bally (University of Colorado, USA) has used the Atacama Large Millimeter\/submillimeter Array<\/a> (ALMA) to peer into the heart of this cloud. There they found the flung-out debris from the explosive birth of this clump of massive stars, looking like a cosmic version of fireworks with giant streamers rocketing off in all directions.<\/p>\n