Newborn star clusters don’t represent anything new for astronomers, but even so, they often remain in awe of their beauty. A large batch of telescopic observations has now led to the uncovering of five vast stellar nurseries that are less than 1,500 light-years away from us. To come to the new findings, astronomers had to pile up over 1 million images that were taken by the European Southern Observatory in Chile over the course of five years, according to AP News.
The L1688 region from the Ophiuchus constellation is now revealed in a new image. All of the stellar nurseries found exist in our own galactic graveyard.
eso| An infrared view of the L1688 region in Ophiuchushttps://t.co/5VaLxF0tWD pic.twitter.com/u9RUfEokHU
— Carcará (@CarcaraCafe) May 11, 2023
Stefan Meingast, who’s the lead author of the new research and also an astronomer at the University of Vienna in Austria, explained as the Independent quotes:
In these images we can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the Sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before.
He also added:
This will allow us to understand the processes that transform gas and dust into stars.
Ophiuchus is known as one of the large constellations known to astronomers, and it is positioned across the celestial equator. The cosmic object’s name comes from an Ancient Greek word that means ‘serpent-bearer.’ It is also commonly represented as a man who holds a snake. As you’ve probably already guessed, the serpent is represented by the Serpens constellation.
Here’s one frustrating but also fascinating fact that astronomers need to learn how to deal with: the Universe is way too large for any of us to ever fully comprehend. Therefore, there will always be unanswered questions about cosmic objects out there.
The new findings appear in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.
