NASA: Hubble photographs rare, enigmatic star forming stellar cloud

NASA says that it appears to be a small, isolated region of star formation and the strange shapes that the gases have taken in the image could have happened because of fierce ultraviolet radiation spewed from bright and young stars in its vicinity.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is one of the longest-serving and most prolific of all the "great observatories". Launched in 1990, the telescope has been in continuous service for over 28 years now and still manages to peer deep into the galaxy and take astounding images, furthering the understanding of the universe.

According to a NASA release, the image is of a little-known nebula, called IRAS 05437+2502. It "billows out among the bright stars and dark dust clouds that surround it in this striking image from the Hubble Space Telescope," writes the space agency.

Located in the constellation Taurus, it can be found near the central plane of the Milky Way galaxy. There is not much study that has gone into this structure and the region has not really been covered extensively unlike many of Hubble's usual targets, notes the report. Even the nebula's exact nature is not clear at this time.

NASA says that as of now, it appears to be a small, isolated region of star formation. As for the strange shapes that the gases have taken in the image, it is possible that it could have come by because of fierce ultraviolet radiation spewed from the bright and young stars in its vicinity.

The featured image was captured from images taken through yellow and near-infrared filters, notes the report. Visible V-shaped features could be the result of a high-velocity young star creating this oddly shaped bright arc, says the report. A star like this might have been ejected from this cluster where it was likely born, travelling at a speed of 200,000 kilometres per hour or more.

Originally discovered in 1983 by the first space telescope to image the whole sky under infrared light (IR), called the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS). IRAS was originally run by the US, Netherlands, and the UK. This satellite was instrumental in the discovery of numerous new objects that were invisible from the ground.

The image was reportedly taken with the Hubble's Wide Field Channel of the Advanced Camera for Surveys as part of a "snapshot" survey. Such observations are made whenever possible and crammed into Hubble's already busy schedule, says NASA. There is no real guarantee that these snapshots will even be made, so getting this image by itself was incredibly fortunate.