双子座的恒星形成

Nestled among the vast clouds of star-forming regions like this one lie potential clues about the formation of our own solar system.

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features AFGL 5180, a beautiful stellar nursery located in the constellation of Gemini (the Twins).

At the center of the image, a massive star is forming and blasting cavities through the clouds with a pair of powerful jets, extending to the top right and bottom left of the image. Light from this star is mostly escaping and reaching us by illuminating these cavities, like a lighthouse beacon piercing the storm clouds.

Stars are born in dusty environments and although this dust makes for spectacular images, it can prevent astronomers from seeing stars embedded in it. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument is designed to capture detailed images in both visible and infrared light, meaning that the young stars hidden in vast star-forming regions like AFGL 5180 can be seen much more clearly.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. C. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Chalmers University); Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
Text Credit: European Space Agency (ESA)

在像这样的恒星形成区的巨大云层中，隐藏着关于我们自己的太阳系形成的潜在线索。

这张来自NASA/ESA哈勃太空望远镜的图片展示了AFGL 5180，一个位于双子座的美丽的恒星托儿所。

在图像的中心，一颗大质量恒星正在形成，并通过一对强大的喷流在云中炸开空洞，一直延伸到图像的右上方和左下方。这颗恒星发出的光大部分是通过照亮这些空洞而逃逸并到达我们这里的，就像灯塔的信标穿过风暴云。

恒星是在尘埃环境中诞生的，尽管这些尘埃可以形成壮观的图像，但它会让天文学家看不到嵌入其中的恒星。哈勃的广角相机3 (WFC3)仪器旨在捕捉可见光和红外光下的详细图像，这意味着可以更清楚地看到隐藏在像AFGL 5180这样的巨大恒星形成区的年轻恒星。

图片来源：ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. C. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani (Chalmers University); Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
文字来源：欧洲航天局（ESA）