Joyful Hubble Space Telescope image showing a little area of the popular nebula Westerhout 5, which lies around 7,000 light years away. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, R. Sahai
This joyful image reveals a little region of the widely known nebula Westerhout 5, which is located approximately 7,000 light-years from Earth. Steeped with brilliant red light, this luminous image hosts a range of intriguing functions, including a free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globule (frEGG). The frEGG in this image is the little tadpole-shaped dark area in the upper center-left.
FrEGGs are a specific class of Evaporating Gaseous Globules (EGGs). Both frEGGs and EGGs are areas of gas that are sufficiently thick that they photoevaporate less quickly than the less compact gas surrounding them. Photoevaporation takes place when gas is ionized and distributed away by an intense source of radiation– normally young, hot stars launching large quantities of ultraviolet light. EGGs were only determined relatively just recently, most notably at the tips of the Pillars of Creation (see image below), which were captured by Hubble in renowned images launched in 1995.
These columns that resemble stalagmites extending from the floor of a cavern remain in reality cool interstellar hydrogen gas and dust that act as incubators for new stars. Inside them and on their surface area astronomers have actually discovered knots or globules of denser gas. These are called EGGs (acronym for “Evaporating Gaseous Globules”). Inside at least some of the EGGs stars are being formed. Credit NASA, ESA, STScI, J. Hester and P. Scowen (ASU).
FrEGGs were classified even more recently, and are differentiated from EGGs by being removed and having a distinct head-tail shape. EGGs and freggs are of particular interest since their density makes it more tough for intense UV radiation, discovered in regions abundant in young stars, to penetrate them.
Saturated with intense red light, this luminous image hosts a variety of interesting features, consisting of a free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globule (frEGG). The frEGG in this image is the little tadpole-shaped dark region in the upper center-left. Both eggs and freggs are areas of gas that are sufficiently dense that they photoevaporate less quickly than the less compact gas surrounding them. The frEGG in this image (at the top of the page) is a dark area in the sea of red light.
The frEGG in this image (at the top of the page) is a dark area in the sea of traffic signal. The red color is caused by a particular type of light emission referred to as H-alpha emission. This happens when an extremely energetic electron within a hydrogen atom loses a specific quantity of energy, resulting in the electron ending up being less energetic and launching this recognizable red light.