They are all planetary systems in the making

Dec 15, 2009 07:55 GMT  ·  By

Astronomers operating the Hubble Space Telescope have recently released a number of 30 new images of what they name cosmic “blobs and smudges,” all inside the famous Orion Nebula. All the structures, the team says, are planetary systems in the making, and they will come to resemble our own solar system over the years. The peculiar structures, some of which look like gargantuan jellyfish, are known among astronomers as proplyds, or protoplanetary discs, Space reports.

The jellyfish-like formations, experts say, are caused only in the particular instances when a proplyd is located too close to a nearby massive star. The latter's brutal behavior generates numerous shock waves, which propagate into the protoplanetary disc, causing its material to spread out in a peculiar manner. Though the number of Hubble images was great, experts were not surprised to see these many new stars and planets developing inside the Orion Nebula.

The structure is well known among astronomers as one that forms stars at an impressive rate. The thing about the new images is that they surprise all these objects at various stages in their development, and can provide experts with the tools needed to create a method of comparatively analyzing them. The nebula is filled with cosmic dust and gas, and these clouds are believed to be the main engines behind stellar formation. Scientists say that, as the clouds get bigger and bigger, they fall under their own weight at one point, collapsing onto themselves and igniting to form a new star.

It is also believed that our Sun formed inside such a nebula as well, before finally getting kicked out, and moving to its current, lonely position. Astronomers make a hobby of keeping track of nebulae and the stars they form. And Orion, a mere 1,500 light-years away from our solar system, is an ideal place to start. Further investigations into these structures could lead to a better understanding of the star-forming processes, which may in turn help further our understanding of galaxy formation, and of how the early Universe evolved.