A star is a spherical gaseous object comprising mainly hydrogen and helium, assembled under its own gravity, and able to produce energy through nuclear fusion. Stars exhibit great diversity in interesting properties such as mass, volume, space velocity, stage in stellar evolution, and distances from earth. This list contains many whose properties might be considered extreme or disproportionate.
beyond the left edge of this image. Compressing the surrounding material, these supernovas may have initiated a wave of star formation that sparked, one by one, these stellar cribs.
The image is a composite of the wavelengths of 70 microns (blue), 160 microns (green) and 250 microns (red) and spans about one degree on the long side. North is to the upper-left and east is to the lower left. The data were acquired with Herschel’s PACS and SPIRE instruments in September 2010, as part of a larger map of the W48 molecular complex in the HOBYS Key Programme. This was first published in a paper by Q. Nguyen Luong, et al. 2011. A more detailed study of the star-forming regions shown in this image is presented in a paper by K.L.J. Rygl, et al. 2014.
