From the 2Mass Image Gallery
NGC 3603 (left) and NGC 3576 (right) referred to together as RCW 57 are among the largest H II (ionized hydrogen) regions in the Galaxy. Both contain large numbers of hot, young, massive stars. Though only about 30« apart on the sky, NGC 3603 is about twice as far away from us as NGC 3576 (which is at a distance of about 3000 pc, or 9800 light years). Both H II regions are ideal laboratories for studying star formation over a broad mass scale in a number of wavelength regimes. Both regions are partially obscured by foreground dust in the Galaxy, and both possess a considerable amount of internal dust (as can particularly be seen for NGC 3576, so studying them in the near-infrared, which penetrates the dust, gives us a more complete census of both young low-mass and high-mass stars and a more complete picture of the spatial distribution of recent star formation. In the optical, NGC 3576 shows bright extended loop-like nebulosity to the northeast, which is not seen in the 2MASS image. Image mosaic by E. Kopan (IPAC).
This image is a three-band composite constructed from 2MASS Atlas Images. They are infrared images and therefore must be mapped into false colors: J light (1.2 µm) into blue, H light (1.6 µm) in green, and Ks light (2.2 µm) into red. The Atlas Images are produced in the 2MASS Production Processing System. North is up and east is to the left.The text is based on accompanying on-line materials.
Last Modified On: Monday, December 18, 2000