Star-Forming Region RCW38 in the Milky Way

From The European Southern Observatory

This is a spectacular three-color composite image through three near infrared filters of RCW38, a region in the Milky Way at a distance of about 5,000 light years, where stars which have recently formed in clouds of gas and dust are still heavily obscured and cannot be observed in the visible part of the spectrum. But they are very well seen at infrared wavelengths where the obscuration is substantially lower. The diffuse radiation is a mixture of starlight scattered by the dust and gas in the area, and atomic and molecular hydrogen line emission.

This image is a combination of three exposures through Z (centered at 0.90µm), H (1.65µm) and Ks filters (2.16µm) and with exposure times of 160, 320 and 210 seconds, respectively, The field measures 2.5 arcmin x 2.5 arcmin with North at the top and East to the left. The seeing was 0.4 arcsec.

Based on press release with ESO PR Photo 46b/98
Catalog #: Photo 46b/98
Target Name: Star-Forming Region RCW38 in the Milky Way

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 Last Modified On: Sunday, December 16, 2000