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Hubble Celebrates 24th Anniversary with Infrared Image of Nearby Star Factory

Lower -left quadrant is filled with rusty-brown dust cloud dotted with a few bright stars. Hazy pillars of gas and dust rise up toward the right. A bluish-white glow fills the lower-right quadrant. The haze is more transparent as you move toward the upper right corner. Background is dotted with stars.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this infrared-light portrait of a roiling region of star birth called NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252 located 6,400 light-years away.

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

In celebration of the 24th anniversary of the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers have captured infrared-light images of a churning region of star birth 6,400 light-years away.

The collection of images reveals a shadowy, dense knot of gas and dust sharply contrasted against a backdrop of brilliant glowing gas in the Monkey Head Nebula (also known as NGC 2174 and Sharpless Sh2-252).

The image demonstrates Hubble's powerful infrared vision and offers a tantalizing hint of what scientists can expect from the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope.

Left half of the image: Visible light shows a black to rusty-brown cloud outlined by illuminated, golden clouds. The nebula is sent against a glowing blue cloud dotted with stars. Right half of the image: Infrared light shows a dust cloud dotted with a few bright stars. Hazy pillars of gas and dust rise up toward the right. A bluish-white glow fills the lower-right quadrant. The haze is more transparent as you move toward the upper right corner. Background is dotted with stars.

This graphic compares visible-light and infrared views of the same detailed area in the star-forming nebula NGC 2174 from the Hubble Space Telescope. On the left is a visible-light image made by WFPC2 in 2001 and on the right is an image made by the WFC3 infrared camera. Infrared light penetrates more dust and gas than visible light, allowing main details to become visible. A jet of material from a newly forming star is visible in one of the pillars, just above and left of center in the right-hand image. Several galaxies are seen in the infrared view, much more distant than the columns of dust and gas.

NASA and ESA; Acknowledgment: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and J. Hester

Observations of NGC 2174 were taken in February, 2014.

Massive newborn stars near the center of the nebula (and toward the right in this image) are blasting away at dust within the nebula. The ultraviolet light emitted by these bright stars helps shape the dust into giant pillars.

This carving action occurs because the nebula is mostly composed of hydrogen gas, which becomes ionized by the ultraviolet radiation. As the dust particles are warmed by the ultraviolet light of the stars, they heat up and begin to glow at infrared wavelengths.

Left half of the image is the entire NGC 2174 nebula. A white square indicates the location of the Hubble infrared image at right. The nebula appears like an oval cloud ringed by rusty-brown gas and filled with glowing blue gas dotted with stars. Right half: Right half of the image: Infrared light shows a rusty-brown dust cloud dotted with a few bright stars. Hazy pillars of gas and dust rise up toward the right. A bluish-white glow fills the lower-right quadrant. The haze is more transparent as you move toward the upper right corner. Background is dotted with stars.

This graphic shows the location of the infrared image from the Hubble Space Telescope in a wider view of the region of NGC 2174. On the left is a ground-based image of the star-forming nebula in visible light by an amateur astrophotographer, with an outline showing the area of the detailed Hubble image. On the right is a small detail of a star-forming column in the nebula, made by Hubble's WFC3 infrared camera.

NASA and ESA; Acknowledgment: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) and R. Crisp

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.

J.D. Harrington
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov

Ray Villard
Space Science Telescope Institute, Baltimore, Md.
410-338-4493 / 410-338-4514
Villard@stsci.edu