An Enigmatic Astronomical Explosion

Esahubble_potw2238a_1024

esahubble_potw2238a September 19th, 2022

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai

A bright young star is surrounded by a shroud of thick gas and dust in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 inspected a young stellar object, over 9000 light years away in the constellation Taurus, to help astronomers understand the earliest stages in the lives of massive stars. This object — which is known to astronomers as IRAS 05506+2414 — is thought to be an example of an explosive event caused by the disruption of a massive young star system. If so, it would only be the second such example known. Usually the swirling discs of material surrounding a young star are funnelled into twin outflows of gas and dust from the star. In the case of IRAS 05506+2414, however, a fan-like spray of material travelling at velocities of up to 350 kilometres per second is spreading outwards from the centre of this image. Astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to measure the distance to IRAS 05506+2414. While it is possible to measure the velocity of material speeding outwards from the star, astronomers cannot tell how far from Earth the star actually is from a single observation. However, by measuring the distance that the outflow travels between successive images, they will be able to infer the distance to IRAS 05506+2414. This will allow astronomers to determine how bright the star is and how much energy it is emitting, and hence to estimate its mass — all vital information that will help to understand the origin of this bright young star’s unusual outflow. Links Video of An Enigmatic Astronomical Explosion

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2238a/

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

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IRAS 05506+2414
Esahubble_potw2238a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 53m 43.5s
DEC = 24° 14’ 45.8”
Orientation
North is 135.7° CW
Field of View
2.3 x 2.1 arcminutes
Constellation
Taurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Fe II continuum) 1.7 µm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Fe II) 1.6 µm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (YJ) 1.1 µm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw2238a_1280
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ID
potw2238a
Subject Category
Subject Name
IRAS 05506+2414
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sahai
Release Date
2022-09-19T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2238a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Fe II continuum, Fe II, H, YJ
Central Wavelength
1670, 1640, 1600, 1100
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
88.43129946511952, 24.246061489592872
Reference Dimension
1066.0, 959.0
Reference Pixel
533.0, 479.5
Scale
-3.5674523282373756e-05, 3.5674523282373756e-05
Rotation
-135.73999999999992
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2238a
Metadata Date
2022-09-12T22:01:23+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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