The cosmos is full of vast, cold, and beautiful places where stars are born. One of the most spectacular stellar nurseries ever captured is N159, a gigantic cloud of cold hydrogen gas located far outside our own galaxy. Captured in exquisite detail by the ESA/Hubble Space Telescope, this image is a story of stellar creation, immense scale, and explosive feedback.
A Massive Star-Forming Factory.
N159 is one of the most massive and active star-forming complexes in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a dwarf galaxy that serves as the largest satellite of our Milky Way. Situated approximately 160,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado, the N159 complex is staggering in size, stretching over 150 light-years across. To put that scale into perspective, 150 light-years is nearly 10 million times the distance between Earth and the Sun.
Within the subzero, high-pressure interior of this gas cloud, gravity works its magic, condensing the gas and dust until nuclear fusion ignites, giving birth to young, high-mass stars.
The Phenomenon of Cosmic Bubbles.
The most captivating feature of the N159 portrait is the vivid interplay between the newborn stars and their environment. As these young, massive stars ignite, they illuminate their surroundings, causing the vast hydrogen gas clouds to glow a characteristic bright red. This light is produced by excited hydrogen atoms, which Hubble is perfectly equipped to observe.
However, the powerful young stars don’t just illuminate their birthplaces—they actively reshape them through a process called stellar feedback.
- Intense Radiation: Hot, high-mass stars emit massive amounts of high-energy radiation.
- Stellar Winds: They also unleash powerful, sweeping stellar winds.
These forces essentially “fry their habitats,” carving out luminous, reddish bubbles in the surrounding gas cloud. These bubbles are tangible evidence of the fierce energy released by stellar giants, creating voids through which the dark backdrop of space becomes visible.
This dynamic process is crucial for galactic evolution. By dispersing the gas and dust from their immediate vicinity, these cosmic bubbles can compress material further out, potentially triggering the formation of the next generation of stars. The Hubble image of N159 provides astronomers with vital information on how star formation proceeds in galaxies outside the Milky Way.