The Hubble Space Telescope recently captured an amazing pair of stars residing in the Orion Nebula, a stellar nursery located 1,450 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Dubbed “The Beast and the Beauty”, these two stars have a captivating story.
The Beast and the Beauty
Weighing in at 110 times the mass of our Sun, the Beast overwhelms its companion – the Beauty – which is a mere 30 times the Sun’s mass. Both stars lie within a cavity carved in the dust and gas of the clouds surrounding the Orion Nebula, as if they were standing alone in an amphitheater within a celestial sea.
Striking story told in stellar order
The Beauty and the Beast are in the midst of a dramatic transformation. In the next few thousand years, the intense ultraviolet radiation generated by the Beast is gradually evaporating the material that formed the Beauty, slowly dismantling the envelope of gas and dust before the two stars coalesce into a more massive star.
Hubble provides stunning view of stellar duo
The Hubble Space Telescope captures stunning images of these two stars like no other. The crisp contrast of the stars against the backdrop of the thick dust of the Orion Nebula provides an exquisite view of the stellar system. Astronomers have been able to distinguish the details of the massive Beast, as well as its much smaller companion.
Massive stars like the Beast
Massive stars like the Beast play a vital role in the formation of new stars in galaxies. These giants produce intense amounts of ultraviolet radiation thatblast away the shroud of dust and gas surrounding stellar nurseries like the Orion Nebula. This radiation also triggers further star formation, providing the energy necessary for the formation of future stars.
Hunting for Beauty and Beast in the sky
Using the coordinates of the Orion Nebula, amateur astronomers can hunt for theBeauty and Beast for themselves. With the assistance of a good pair of binoculars and a detailed star chart, you can see the two stars standing together in the sky.
If you’re lucky, you just might witness the magical duo of stars resolved as The Beast and the Beauty.
Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured a stunning image of a binary star system located deep inside the Orion Nebula, around 1,450 light-years away from Earth.
The image was taken thanks to the combination of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and its Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). During the observations, a bright point of light can be seen as the system’s secondary star – a smaller, faint companion to the primary star, known as the Trapezium cluster. Together, the two stars form a system known as Theta-1 Ori C, responsible for lighting up the gas and dust of the nebula.
The orange glowing gas visible in the image is largely composed of hydrogen, which is heated by the ultraviolet radiation of the stars, creating the stunning visual display.
The structure of Theta-1 Ori C consists of two stars orbiting one another at a distance of approximately 45 Astronomical Units (AU), equivalent to 45 times the average distance between Earth and the Sun. The stars have a combined mass of nearly 70 times the mass of the Sun and orbit each other in a relatively quick 10.6 days. This system is especially important as it is a young star-forming cluster, allowing astronomers to observe the process of star formation in action.
While much is already known about the dynamics of binary star systems, this stunning image from Hubble opens up a new window for research and further insights into the formation, evolution, and interaction of binary stars within galactic neighborhoods. The data from the image can be used to further understand processes such as star and planet formation.
In short: Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have captured an image of a binary star system located 1,450 light-years away in the Orion Nebula, known as Theta-1 Ori C. The two stars have a combined mass of nearly 70 times the mass of the Sun and orbit each other in 10.6 days. The orange glowing gas in the image is largely composed of hydrogen, heated by the stars’ ultraviolet radiation, allowing astronomers to observe the process of star formation in action. This image provides a new window of research to understand the formation, evolution and interactions of binary stars within galactic neighborhoods.