Glory in darkness

Marco Aurélio Ribeiro - Escritor

In this wide-angle image we see a dark cloud of cosmic dust, illuminated by the bright light of young stars. This dense cloud is actually a stellar formation region called Lupus 3, where extremely hot stars are born from masses of gas and dust that are collapsing. This image was created from data obtained with the light rail screening telescope and with the mpg / eso telescope of 2,2 meters, with the most detailed image of this region obtained today.

THE STELLAR FORMATION REGION LUPUS 3 is located in the constellation scorpion, only 600 Light-years away from earth. It is part of a larger complex called lupus clouds, which remove its name from the adjacent constellation of the wolf. The clouds reminiscent of smoke rippling against a background of millions of stars, however the object is effectively a dark nebula.

Nebulae are huge amounts of gas and dust between the stars, some extending over hundreds of light years. Although many nebulae are completely illuminated by the intense light emitted by hot stars, dark nebulae involve the light of celestial objects within them. They are also known as absorption nebulae, since they consist of dense, cold dust particles that absorb and disperse the light passing through the cloud.

Famous Dark Nebulae include the coal bag nebula and the great fissure, which are large enough to be seen with the naked eye, presenting particularly dark against the brightness of the milky way.

Lupus 3 presents an irregular form, like a misshapen snake that roams the sky. In this image it appears as a region of contrasts, with thick dark rails placed against the intense brightness of the bright blue stars located in the center. Like Most Dark Nebulae, Lupus 3 is an active star formation region composed mainly of protostars and very young stars. Nearby disturbances may cause denser lumps of the nebula to fall under its own gravity, becoming warm and with high pressure during the process. Eventually, the extreme conditions of these collapsing nuclei form protostars.

The two bright stars in the center of the image suffered this process. At the beginning of their lives, the light they emitted was virtually all blocked by the thick veil of their host nebula, being visible only with infrared or radio telescopes. However, as they grew more warm and bright, their intense light and strong stellar winds swept the gas and dust from the surrounding area, thus allowing their glorious emergence of dark motherhood, and shining now intensely.

Understanding Nebulae is crucial for understanding star formation processes - effectively, it is thought that the sun formed in a stellar formation region very similar to Lupus 3, more than 4 billion years ago. Being one of the nearest stellar maternity wards, Lupus 3 has been the subject of many studies; in 2013 the mpg / eso telescope of 2,2 meters, installed at the eso's La Silla Observatory in Chile, captured an image Minor of its dark columns similar to smoke and its bright stars (Eso1303).