The Small Magellanic Cloud has been the target

Jan 6, 2010 06:43 GMT  ·  By
Newly released Spitzer image, showing intense stellar formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud
   Newly released Spitzer image, showing intense stellar formation in the Small Magellanic Cloud

The Spitzer Space Telescope is one of NASA's four Great Observatories, and also one of the most renowned and useful space instruments ever launched. It surveyed the Universe in infrared wavelengths until not long ago, at very chilly temperatures. Now, with its liquid cooling fuel depleted, it conducts what is generally referred to as a “warm mission,” in which the instrument is more than 150 degrees Celsius below zero. With its new capabilities, the Spitzer has recently imaged the Small Magellanic Cloud, and has managed to catch a glimpse of a star's whole life cycle in a single photo, Space reports.

The new observations essentially provide astronomers with a lot more information about how stars form, as well as on the materials that make up their environments. For instance, the photos of a dwarf galaxy next to our Milky Way show recycled pillars of dust, which continuously engulf stars, and then spit them back out. The Spitzer photograph surprises all of these features in a single image, which allows researchers to look at the various stages of stellar evolution. Because the SMC is so close, it provides astronomers with the ability to witness these events up close and personal.

“It's quite a treasure trove. Because this galaxy is so close and relatively large, we can study all the various stages and facets of how stars form in one environment,” the principal investigator of Spitzer's recent studies, Karl Gordon, said. He is also an expert at the Baltimore, Maryland-based Space Telescope Science Institute. The findings were presented yesterday, January 5, in Washington DC, at the 215th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). Gordon emphasized that the Small Magellanic Cloud lay some 200,000 light-years away.

“With Spitzer, we are pinpointing how to best calculate the numbers of new stars that are forming right now. Observations in the infrared give us a view into the birthplace of stars, unveiling the dust-enshrouded locations where stars have just formed,” the expert added. He also explained to the audience that the red stars that appeared in the image were actually younger stars that were drawn into the dust pillars, whereas the bluer stars were older and they were responsible for ejecting the gas. Gordon concluded by saying that the recent observations had been taken before Spitzer ran out of liquid coolant, in mid-2009.