Showing posts with label infrared. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infrared. Show all posts

21 February 2013

Lobster Nebula NGC 6357 Imaged In Infrared By VISTA Telescope


The Lobster Nebula (NGC 6357) is captured in an infrared image by the European Southern Observatory's VISTA Telescope in infrared. The image shows the object in a surprising new light.

A Nebula is a region where stars are fromed. Nebulae (or nebulas) are made up of clouds of gas and dust. Over millions of years. these gas and dust clouds start massing together to form stars.

The Lobster Nebula is the informal name for Messier 17, also known as NGC 6357. This nebula is imaged in infrared which shows features of the nebula that is not picked up in visible-light images. This may happen because the object is too cold, blocked by the thick dust in the nebula, or is very far that the light that can be detected is in the red end of the spectrum. The farther an object is, the closer to the red spectrum (infrared) it is. Closer objects shift more to the blue spectrum of light.

In the case of the Lobster Nebula, the infrared image penetrates most of the clouds of dust blocking the light.

Lobster Nebula