Images by Date
Images by Category
Solar System
Stars
Exoplanets
White Dwarfs
Supernovas
Neutron Stars
Black Holes
Milky Way Galaxy
Normal Galaxies
Quasars
Galaxy Clusters
Cosmology/Deep Field
Miscellaneous
Images by Interest
Space Scoop for Kids
4K JPG
Multiwavelength
Sky Map
Constellations
Photo Blog
Top Rated Images
Image Handouts
Desktops
Fits Files
Visual descriptions
Image Tutorials
Photo Album Tutorial
False Color
Cosmic Distance
Look-Back Time
Scale & Distance
Angular Measurement
Images & Processing
AVM/Metadata
Image Use Policy
Web Shortcuts
Chandra Blog
RSS Feed
Chronicle
Email Newsletter
News & Noteworthy
Image Use Policy
Questions & Answers
Glossary of Terms
Download Guide
Get Adobe Reader
Cygnus OB2: Probing a Nearby Stellar Cradle

  • Cygnus OB2 is a star cluster in the Milky Way that contains many hot, massive young stars.

  • This composite image of Cygnus OB2 contains X-rays from Chandra (blue), infrared data from Spitzer (red), and optical data from the Isaac Newton Telescope (orange).

  • Astronomers would like to better understand how this and other star factories like it form and evolve.

  • A deep Chandra observation of Cygnus OB2 has found almost 1,500 stars emitting X-rays.

The Milky Way and other galaxies in the universe harbor many young star clusters and associations that each contain hundreds to thousands of hot, massive, young stars known as O and B stars. The star cluster Cygnus OB2 contains more than 60 O-type stars and about a thousand B-type stars. At a relatively nearby distance to Earth of about 5,000 light years, Cygnus OB2 is the closest massive cluster. Deep observations with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory of Cygnus OB2 have been used to detect the X-ray emission from the hot outer atmospheres, or coronas, of young stars in the cluster and to probe how these great star factories form and evolve. About 1,700 X-ray sources were detected, including about 1,450 thought to be stars in the cluster. In this image, X-rays from Chandra (blue) have been combined with infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and optical data from the Isaac Newton Telescope (orange).

Young stars ranging in age from one million to seven million years were detected. The infrared data indicates that a very low fraction of the stars have circumstellar disks of dust and gas. Even fewer disks were found close to the massive OB stars, betraying the corrosive power of their intense radiation that leads to early destruction of their disks. Evidence is also seen that the older population of stars has lost its most massive members because of supernova explosions. Finally, a total mass of about 30,000 times the mass of the sun is derived for Cygnus OB2, similar to that of the most massive star forming regions in our Galaxy.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.

Fast Facts for Cygnus OB2:
Credit  X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/J.Drake et al, Optical: Univ. of Hertfordshire/INT/IPHAS, Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Release Date  November 7, 2012
Scale  Image is 11.8 arcmin across (16 light years)
Category  Normal Stars & Star Clusters
Coordinates (J2000)  RA 20h 37m 11.00s | Dec +38° 41´ 52.00"
Constellation  Cygnus
Observation Date  39 pointings between January 2004 and March 2010
Observation Time  341 hours 40 min (14 days 5 hours 40 min)
Obs. ID  4501, 4511, 10939-10974, 12099
Instrument  ACIS
Color Code  X-ray (Blue), Optical (Yellow), Infrared (Red)
IR
>
Optical
X-ray
Distance Estimate  About 4,600 light years
distance arrow
Visitor Comments (1)

Many of the multimedia are incompatible with multimedia tablets as they do not support Flash. HTML 5.0 is the standard that now ought to be considered for use. There are ways to modify we pages to choose the display output from the server depending on whether the request is flash capable or not. Considering that the world is rapidly abandoning Flash due to its exorbitant processing and security requirements and as well since no modern tablets accept flash
any longer I think it incumbent on this site to work towards updating it so the wonderful data can be universally accessible.

Posted by Neil fiertel on Friday, 11.9.12 @ 20:01pm


Rate This Image

Rating: 3.8/5
(1355 votes cast)
Download & Share

Desktops

1024x768 - 1 MB
1280x1024 - 1.6 MB
1680x1050 - 2 MB
More Information
For Kids: Cygnus OB2
Blog: Cygnus OB2
More Images
X-ray Image of Cygnus OB2
Jpg, Tif
X-ray

More Images
Animation & Video
Tour of Cygnus OB2
animation

A Field Trip to Star School
Click for high-resolution animation

More Animations
More Releases
Cygnus OB2
Cygnus OB2
(28 Oct 24)

Cygnus OB2
Cygnus OB2
(23 Jul 19)

Related Images
NGC 1929
NGC 1929
(30 Aug 12)
NGC 281
NGC 281
(28 Sep 11)
Cepheus B
Cepheus B
(12 Aug 09)

Related Information
Related Podcast
Top Rated Images
Timelapses: Crab Nebula and Cassiopeia A

Data Sonification

Brightest Cluster Galaxies




FaceBookTwitterYouTubeFlickr