Pictured: Stunning images from Hubble space telescope that show the life cycle of stars

Pictured: Stunning images from Hubble space telescope that show the life cycle of stars

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Last updated at 8:38 PM on 31st December 2008

These are the stunning images that depict the life cycle of stars, released to celebrate 18 years of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The first shot captures the Orion nebula - a dense cloud of gas about 1,500 light years from Earth - within which new stars are forming.

Stars are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas, chaotic neighbourhoods where energy from young stars sculpt fantasy-like landscapes in the gas.

The inset is a close-up of a young star surrounded by a dusty disk that may eventually form planets.


The Orion nebula - within which new stars are forming. The inset is a close-up of a young star surrounded by a dusty disk that may eventually form planets

The second picture shows young blue stars surrounded by leftover natural gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy composed of up to several billion stars - a small number compared to our own Milky Way's 200 to 400 billion stars.

The third image in the montage features an evolving star known as V838 Monocerotis whose past flashes have illuminated material that was ejected in an early stellar wind.

In the fourth a planetary nebula forms as a dying star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the white dwarf at its centre while a globular cluster - a spherical collection of stars - in the fifth contains many old ones.


Young blue stars are surrounded by leftover natural gas in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby dwarf galaxy composed of up to several billion stars

The faintest stars in the cluster are also white dwarfs, said Professor Julianne Dalcanton, an astronomer at Washington University.

Writing in the science journal Nature to mark the launch of the International Year of Astronomy, she said Hubble has 'captured the public's imagination' with the estimated 900,000 pictures it has taken since its launch on April 24 1990.

The telescope's deep, clear views are not masked by the Earth's turbulent atmosphere giving it unprecedented resolution when imaging the brightness and structure of objects in deep space.


An evolving star known as V838 Monocerotis

Prof Dalcanton said: 'These advantages have dramatically changed our understanding of astronomy - from tracing the life cycle of stars to demonstrating the role of black holes in galaxy formation and testing fundamental models of the expansion of the Universe.'

Among Hubble's greatest achievements is a set of observations of supernovas that shows the universe is not just expanding, but doing so at an ever-increasing pace.

The blockbuster finding means something called dark energy, which scientists know almost nothing about, is working against gravity - and winning.


An image of a planetary nebula forming as a dying star sheds its outer layers, leaving behind the white dwarf at its centre

Somewhat closer to home, in 2001 Hubble made the first direct measurements of the composition of a planet's atmosphere outside our solar system.

Pockmarked with meteoroid impacts, Hubble has over time clocked radically changing winds on Saturn and shown Neptune to have seasons. It spotted mysterious light flashes on Jupiter, and made stunning portraits of Mars.

Prof Dalcanton said: 'The HST's (Hubble Space Telescope's) successes can be attributed to the same three key factors influencing real estate - location, location, location.

'Raising the HST above most of the Earth's atmosphere has allowed it to escape a host of problems that limit telescopes on the ground.

'Although stars are frequently assumed to be constant and unchanging features of the firmament, they are in fact evolving dynamic systems.

'New stars condense out of gaseous nebulae, and old stars evolve through planetary nebulae and supernovae into white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.


A globular cluster - a spherical collection of stars

'These processes of star formation and evolution are critical to understanding many features of the Universe, including the evolution of galaxies, the dispersal of chemical elements and the distribution and energetics of gas.

'Some of the HST's most lasting - and beautiful - contributions to stellar astronomy have been its studies of star-forming regions like the Orion nebula.

'In these regions, luminous massive stars ionize the gas cloud from which they coalesced, causing the cloud to glow brightly in various emission lines.

'The HST's earliest observations of the Orion nebula revealed it was peppered with a remarkable population of young stars surrounded by dense disks of gas and dust.'

Hubble is a joint project between the European Space Agency and NASA.

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1103603/Pictured-Stunning-images-Hubble-space-telescope-life-cycle-stars.html