Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai

This image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts a special class of star-forming nursery known as Free-floating Evaporating Gaseous Globules, or frEGGs for short. This object is formally known as J025157.5+600606. When a massive new star starts to shine while still within the cool molecular cloud from which it formed, its energetic radiation can ionise the clouds hydrogen and create a large, hot bubble of ionised gas. Amazingly, located within this bubble of hot gas around a nearby massive star are the frEGGs: dark compact globules of dust and gas, some of which are giving birth to low-mass stars. The boundary between the cool, dusty frEGG and the hot gas bubble is seen as the glowing purple/blue edges in this fascinating image. In July 2020 a previous ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, of J025027.7+600849, featured another frEEG.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2041a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License