{"id":151165,"date":"2025-11-24T12:45:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:45:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151165\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:45:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:45:15","slug":"new-hubble-image-brings-gigantic-star-forming-cloud-into-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/151165\/","title":{"rendered":"New Hubble Image Brings Gigantic Star-Forming Cloud into Focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Astronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have released a beautiful new image of part of N159, a massive star-forming cloud located about 160,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.sci.news\/images\/enlarge13\/image_14371e-N159.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-107380\" class=\"wp-image-107380 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/image_14371-N159.jpg\" alt=\"This Hubble image shows part of the star-forming cloud N159. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ Hubble.\" width=\"580\" height=\"684\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-107380\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This Hubble image shows part of the star-forming cloud N159. Image credit: NASA \/ ESA \/ Hubble.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/largemagellaniccloud.com\/n-159\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">N159<\/a> is one of the most massive giant molecular clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a companion to our own Milky Way Galaxy.<\/p>\n<p>Located at the southwest tip of the famous Tarantula Nebula, the cloud is over 150 light-years across.<\/p>\n<p>It is <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/834\/2\/122\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">composed<\/a> of at least four H II regions separated from one another by 33-65 light-years.<\/p>\n<p>Torrential stellar winds from hot newborn massive stars within N159 sculpt ridges, arcs, and filaments.<\/p>\n<p>Previous studies of N159\u2019s gas content <a href=\"https:\/\/iopscience.iop.org\/article\/10.3847\/1538-4357\/aaab5f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">revealed<\/a> the complex chemistry and physical conditions under which star formation takes place.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cN159 is one of the most massive star-forming clouds in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is the largest of the small galaxies that orbit the Milky Way,\u201d the Hubble astronomers said in a statement,<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe new Hubble image shows just a portion of the N159 star-forming complex.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe entire complex stretches over 150 light-years across,\u201d they noted.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo put that into perspective, 150 light-years is nearly 10 million times the distance between Earth and the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the subzero interior of this gas cloud, subjected to the crushing pressure of gravity, young stars begin to gleam in the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cParticularly hot and high-mass stars illuminate their birthplaces with red light.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis red glow is characteristic of excited hydrogen atoms.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Astronomers using the NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have released a beautiful new image of part of N159, a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1022,100985,15110,41227,90540,48742,100986,3323,111,139,69,147,2737,6988],"class_list":{"0":"post-151165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-esa","9":"tag-hii-region","10":"tag-hubble","11":"tag-hydrogen","12":"tag-large-magellanic-cloud","13":"tag-molecular-cloud","14":"tag-n159","15":"tag-nasa","16":"tag-new-zealand","17":"tag-newzealand","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-science","20":"tag-star","21":"tag-star-formation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}