#westerlund 2

source: ESA / Webb

This new Webb Space Telescope image captures a bright, brilliant star cluster Westerlund 2 near the top packed with young, massive stars whose intense light shapes the stellar nursery known as Gum 29.

Swirls of orange and red gas form sculpted walls and tangled clouds - material being pushed, eroded, and illuminated by the cluster’s powerful radiation.

Threaded throughout are countless tiny stars just beginning to shine, some still surrounded by the gas and dust from which they formed. The soft blues and pinks are wisps of thinner material drifting between the denser clouds.

Celestial Fireworks: Into Star Cluster Westerlund 2

What if you could go right into a cluster where stars are forming? A one-minute, time-lapse, video visualization of just this has been made with 3D computer modeling of the region surrounding the star cluster Westerlund 2, based on images from the Hubble Space Telescope in visible and infrared light.

Westerlund 2 spans about 10 light years across and lies about 20,000 light years distant toward the constellation of the Ship's Keel (Carina).

As the illustrative animation begins, the greater Gum 29 nebula fills the screen, with the young cluster of bright stars visible in the center. Stars zip past you as you approach the cluster. Soon your imaginary ship pivots and you pass over light-year long pillars of interstellar gas and dust. Strong winds and radiation from massive young stars destroy all but the densest nearby dust clumps, leaving these pillars in their shadows -- many pointing back toward the cluster center. Last, you pass into the top of the star cluster and survey hundreds of the most massive stars known.

~ APOD

(Hubble)  Westerlund 2 — Hubble’s 25th-anniversary image

About the Object

Name: Gum 29, RCW 49, Westerlund 2, WR 20a Type: Milky Way : Star : Grouping : Cluster : Open Milky Way : Nebula Distance: 20000 light years Constellation: Carina

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the cluster Westerlund 2 and its surroundings has been released to celebrate Hubble’s 25th year in orbit and a quarter of a century of new discoveries, stunning images, and outstanding science.

The image’s central region, containing the star cluster, blends visible-light data taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys and near-infrared exposures taken by the Wide Field Camera 3. The surrounding region is composed of visible-light observations taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys.

Credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team