Andrew Yee
December 23rd 05, 10:20 PM
ESO Education and Public Relations Dept.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO
Website at URL:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/phot-42-05.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
For immediate release: 25 December 2005
ESO Press Photos 42/05
The Cosmic Christmas Ghost
Two Stunning Pictures of Young Stellar Clusters
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 ESO PR Photo 42b/05
NGC 2467 and Surroundings Open Cluster Haffner 18
(VLT + FORS2) (2.2m ESO/MPG + WFI)
Just like Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol takes us on a journey
into past, present and future in the time of only one Christmas
Eve, two of ESO's telescopes captured various stages in the life
of a star in a single image.
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 shows the area surrounding the stellar
cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of
Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at
most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars
are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.
The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic
celestial Mandrill [1] , contains the open clusters Haffner 18
(centre) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the
smaller pink region -- the lower eye of the Mandrill), as well
as vast areas of ionised gas.
The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the
bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is
helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 was taken with the Wide-Field Imager camera
at the 2.2m MPG/ESO telescope located at La Silla, in Chile.
Another image of the central part of this area is shown as ESO
PR Photo 42b/05. It was obtained with the FORS2 instrument at
ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, also in Chile.
ESO PR Photo 42b/05 zooms in on the open stellar cluster Haffner
18, perfectly illustrating three different stages of this
process of star formation: In the centre of the picture, Haffner
18, a group of mature stars that have already dispersed their
birth nebulae, represents the completed product or immediate
past of the star formation process. Located at the bottom left
of this cluster, a very young star, just come into existence
and, still surrounded by its birth cocoon of gas, provides
insight into the very present of star birth. Finally, the dust
clouds towards the right corner of the image are active stellar
nurseries that will produce more new stars in the future.
Haffner 18 contains about 50 stars, among which several short
lived, massive ones. The massive star still surrounded by a
small, dense shell of hydrogen, has the rather cryptic name of
FM3060a. The shell is about 2.5 light-years wide and expands at
a speed of 20 km/s. It must have been created some 40,000 years
ago. The cluster is between 25,000 and 30,000 light-years away
from us [2].
Technical information:
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 is based on images obtained with the
WFI instrument on the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope for
Rubio/Minniti/Barba/Mendez on December, 2003. The 49
observations were done in six different filters : U (2 hour
exposure) B, OIII, V, H-alpha and R (1 hour exposure each).
The data were extracted from the ESO Science Archive. The raw
observations were reduced and combined by Benoît Vandame (ESO).
The final image is based on the data from the U, OIII and H-
alpha filters. North is right and East is to the top. The field
of view is about 30x30 arcmin. ESO PR Photo 42a/05 is a colour-
composite image obtained with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument on
Kueyen, the second Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope.
The data was collected during the commissioning of the
instrument in February 2000, through 4 filters: B, V, R and I,
for a total exposure time of only 11 minutes. The observations
were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and reduced by Henri
Boffin (ESO). North is above and East is to the left. Final
processing of ESO PR Photo 42a/05 and 42b/05 was done by
Kristina Boneva and Haennes Heyer (ESO).
Notes
[1]: NGC 2467 is also sometimes referred as the "Skull and
Crossbones".
[2]: A study of the cluster Haffner 18 is presented in Moreno-
Corral et al. (2005), Rev. Mex. A&A 41, 69 and in Munari et al.
(1998), MNRAS 297, 867.
ESO Media Contacts are on the Public Affairs Dept. Contact page.
National contacts for the media:
Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Terhi Loukiainen, +358 9 7748 8385
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vørnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Prof. Massimo Capaccioli, +39-081-55 75 511
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25
--------------------------------------------------------------
ESO Press Information is available on the WWW at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c) ESO Education & Public Relations Department
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO
Website at URL:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/phot-42-05.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
For immediate release: 25 December 2005
ESO Press Photos 42/05
The Cosmic Christmas Ghost
Two Stunning Pictures of Young Stellar Clusters
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 ESO PR Photo 42b/05
NGC 2467 and Surroundings Open Cluster Haffner 18
(VLT + FORS2) (2.2m ESO/MPG + WFI)
Just like Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol takes us on a journey
into past, present and future in the time of only one Christmas
Eve, two of ESO's telescopes captured various stages in the life
of a star in a single image.
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 shows the area surrounding the stellar
cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of
Puppis ("The Stern"). With an age of a few million years at
most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars
are born continuously from large clouds of dust and gas.
The image, looking like a colourful cosmic ghost or a gigantic
celestial Mandrill [1] , contains the open clusters Haffner 18
(centre) and Haffner 19 (middle right: it is located inside the
smaller pink region -- the lower eye of the Mandrill), as well
as vast areas of ionised gas.
The bright star at the centre of the largest pink region on the
bottom of the image is HD 64315, a massive young star that is
helping shaping the structure of the whole nebular region.
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 was taken with the Wide-Field Imager camera
at the 2.2m MPG/ESO telescope located at La Silla, in Chile.
Another image of the central part of this area is shown as ESO
PR Photo 42b/05. It was obtained with the FORS2 instrument at
ESO's Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, also in Chile.
ESO PR Photo 42b/05 zooms in on the open stellar cluster Haffner
18, perfectly illustrating three different stages of this
process of star formation: In the centre of the picture, Haffner
18, a group of mature stars that have already dispersed their
birth nebulae, represents the completed product or immediate
past of the star formation process. Located at the bottom left
of this cluster, a very young star, just come into existence
and, still surrounded by its birth cocoon of gas, provides
insight into the very present of star birth. Finally, the dust
clouds towards the right corner of the image are active stellar
nurseries that will produce more new stars in the future.
Haffner 18 contains about 50 stars, among which several short
lived, massive ones. The massive star still surrounded by a
small, dense shell of hydrogen, has the rather cryptic name of
FM3060a. The shell is about 2.5 light-years wide and expands at
a speed of 20 km/s. It must have been created some 40,000 years
ago. The cluster is between 25,000 and 30,000 light-years away
from us [2].
Technical information:
ESO PR Photo 42a/05 is based on images obtained with the
WFI instrument on the ESO/MPG 2.2-m telescope for
Rubio/Minniti/Barba/Mendez on December, 2003. The 49
observations were done in six different filters : U (2 hour
exposure) B, OIII, V, H-alpha and R (1 hour exposure each).
The data were extracted from the ESO Science Archive. The raw
observations were reduced and combined by Benoît Vandame (ESO).
The final image is based on the data from the U, OIII and H-
alpha filters. North is right and East is to the top. The field
of view is about 30x30 arcmin. ESO PR Photo 42a/05 is a colour-
composite image obtained with the FORS2 multi-mode instrument on
Kueyen, the second Unit Telescope of the Very Large Telescope.
The data was collected during the commissioning of the
instrument in February 2000, through 4 filters: B, V, R and I,
for a total exposure time of only 11 minutes. The observations
were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and reduced by Henri
Boffin (ESO). North is above and East is to the left. Final
processing of ESO PR Photo 42a/05 and 42b/05 was done by
Kristina Boneva and Haennes Heyer (ESO).
Notes
[1]: NGC 2467 is also sometimes referred as the "Skull and
Crossbones".
[2]: A study of the cluster Haffner 18 is presented in Moreno-
Corral et al. (2005), Rev. Mex. A&A 41, 69 and in Munari et al.
(1998), MNRAS 297, 867.
ESO Media Contacts are on the Public Affairs Dept. Contact page.
National contacts for the media:
Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Terhi Loukiainen, +358 9 7748 8385
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vørnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Prof. Massimo Capaccioli, +39-081-55 75 511
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25
--------------------------------------------------------------
ESO Press Information is available on the WWW at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c) ESO Education & Public Relations Department
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------