NASA captures distant nebula W51, one of the largest 'star factories' in Milky Way

NASA's recently retired Spitzer Telescope has captured a spectacular im of one of largest "star factories" in our Milky Way galaxy. First identified in 1958 by rio telescopes,  nebula kwn as W51 is one of most active star-forming regions in our home galaxy.

most massive stars in universe are born inside cosmic clouds of gas and dust, where y leave behind clues about ir lives for astromers to decode.

Located about 17,000 light-years from Earth, in direction of constellation Aquila in night sky, W51 is about 350 light-years – or about 2 qurillion miles – across. It is almost invisible to telescopes that collect visible light ( kind human eyes detect), because that light is blocked by interstellar dust clouds that lie between W51 and Earth. But longer wavelengths of light, including rio and infrared, can pass unencumbered through dust. When viewed in infrared by Spitzer, W51 is a spectacular sight: Its total infrared emission is equivalent of 20 million Suns.

If you could see it with your naked eye, this dense cloud of gas and dust would appear about as large as full Moon.

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vancing understanding of star formation

This im was taken as part of a major observation campaign by Spitzer in 2004 to map large-scale structure of Milky Way galaxy – a considerable challenge because Earth lies inside it. Called Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE), survey also turned up valuable data on many wonders within Milky Way, including ims of multiple stellar factories like W51 that were hidden by dust from visible-light observatories.

" really spectacular ims provided by Spitzer via GLIMPSE survey... give us insight into how massive stars form in our Milky Way, and n how ir powerful winds and riation interact with remaining ambient material," said Breanna Binder, an assistant professor of physics and astromy at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, who studies life cycles of massive stars. "We can't observe star-forming regions in or galaxies in anywhere near level of detail that we can in our own galaxy. So regions like W51 are really important for vancing our understanding of star formation in Milky Way, which we can n extrapolate to how star formation proceeds in or, nearby galaxies."

NASA's Spitzer Telescope launched 17 years ago this week, on August 25, 2003. craft was retired on January 30, 2020.

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