Hubble finds a festive snow angel

NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team Press Release

24 December 2015 Astronomy Now

Sh2-106 is an emission nebula and a star formation region in the constellation Cygnus estimated to be around 2,000 light-years from Earth. A young, massive star in the centre of the nebula emits jets of hot gas from its poles, forming the bipolar structure. The nebula is about 2 light-years across. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
Sh2-106 is an emission nebula and a star formation region in the constellation Cygnus estimated to be around 2,000 light-years from Earth. A young, massive star in the centre of the nebula emits jets of hot gas from its poles, forming the bipolar structure. The nebula is about 2 light-years across. Image credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).
The bipolar star-forming region, called Sharpless 2-106, looks like a soaring, celestial snow angel in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The outstretched “wings” of the nebula record the contrasting imprint of heat and motion against the backdrop of a colder medium. Twin lobes of super-hot gas, glowing blue in this image, stretch outward from the central star. This hot gas creates the “wings” of our angel. A ring of dust and gas orbiting the star acts like a belt, cinching the expanding nebula into an “hourglass” shape.

Related Articles

Picture This

Monster lurks at the core of a lenticular galaxy

12 September 2016 Astronomy Now

This scene captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows PGC 83677, a lenticular galaxy — a galaxy type that sits between the more familiar elliptical and spiral varieties in the Hubble sequence. Studies have uncovered signs of a monstrous black hole in the core of PGC 83677 that is spewing out high-energy X-rays and ultraviolet light.

News

Possibly the most powerful supernova ever seen

14 January 2016 Astronomy Now

Records are made to be broken, as the expression goes, but rarely are records left so thoroughly in the dust. Stunned astronomers have witnessed a cosmic explosion about 200 times more powerful than a typical supernova — events which already rank amongst the mightiest outbursts in the universe — and more than twice as luminous as the previous record-holding supernova.