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Zoom to Nebula Gum 29 and Flight to Star Cluster Westerlund 2
This visualization provides both two- and three-dimensional perspectives on Hubble's 25th anniversary image of the nebula Gum 29 with the star cluster Westerlund 2 at its core. The animation begins with a backyard view of the southern night sky near the constellations of Carina and Vela. After outlining the constellations, the sequence zooms in past the well-known Carina Nebula to the neighboring nebula Gum 29. During the zoom, the images dissolve from a wide-field view down to the high-resolution Hubble image, a mosaic of nine Hubble observations.
The sequence then changes from a two-dimensional zoom to a three- dimensional flight. The flight traverses the foreground stars and approaches the lower left rim of the nebula Gum 29. Passing through the wispy darker clouds on the near side, the journey reveals bright gas illuminated by the intense radiation of the newly formed stars of cluster Westerlund 2. Within the nebula, several pillars of dark, dense gas are being shaped by the energetic light and strong stellar winds from the brilliant cluster of thousands of stars. Note that the visualization is intended to be a scientifically reasonable interpretation and that distances within the model are significantly compressed.
- Release DateApril 23, 2015
- Science ReleaseHubble Space Telescope Celebrates 25 Years of Unveiling the Universe
- Credit
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Westerlund 2: Detail 2
Westerlund 2 is surrounded by the star-forming region Gum 29. The heaviest cluster stars are unleashing a torrent of ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-force winds streaming with charged particles, etching away the enveloping hydrogen gas cloud from where the cluster formed....
Westerlund 2: Detail 3
The pillars in the star-forming region surrounding Westerlund 2, composed of dense gas, are a few light-years tall and point to the central cluster. They are thought to be incubators for new stars. Besides sculpting the gaseous terrain, intense radiation from the most brilliant...
Westerlund 2: Detail 4
The red dots scattered throughout the landscape around Westerlund 2 are a rich population of newly forming stars still wrapped in their gas-and-dust cocoons. These tiny, faint stars are between 1 million and 2 million years old and have not yet ignited the hydrogen in their...
Flight to Star Cluster Westerlund 2
This visualization provides a three-dimensional perspective on Hubble's 25th anniversary image of the nebula Gum 29 with the star cluster Westerlund 2 at its core. The flight traverses the foreground stars and approaches the lower left rim of the nebula Gum 29. Passing through...
Flight to Star Cluster Westerlund 2 (Slower Flight)
This visualization is a half-speed, and thus twice as long, version of the flight to the star cluster. It provides a three-dimensional perspective on Hubble's 25th anniversary image of the nebula Gum 29 with the star cluster Westerlund 2 at its core. The flight traverses the...
Zoom to Nebula Gum 29 and Star Cluster Westerlund 2
This animation begins with a backyard view of the southern night sky near the constellations of Carina and Vela. After outlining the constellations, the sequence zooms in past the well-known Carina Nebula to the neighboring nebula Gum 29. During the zoom, the images dissolve...
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
