Next generation of superstars in ‘Dragonfish’ cluster

The most numerous group of young supermassive stars to be observed in our galaxy has been discovered by astronomers. The stars number in their hundreds of thousands and include several hundred blue stars dozens of times heavier than our sun. The light emitted by these newborn stars pushes out and heats the gas that gave them birth, creating a glowing hollow shell a hundred light years wide.

Such large collections of stars have been observed in other galaxies but could not be seen on images taken by telescopes. Although on this occasion they are situated right in our own galaxy, the stars will still be complicated to observe since they are 30,000 light-years away and shielded by dust.

Most of the light from the stars is absorbed by the intervening dust in our galaxy, making the brightest stars in the cluster appear as dim as smaller, nearby stars. The fainter stars in the cluster appear so dim that they are not seen. However the team used the New Technology Telescope at the European Southern Observatory in Chile to collect whatever light they could

The name ‘Dragonfish’ came from a comparison of the infrared image of the celestial gas shell with Peter Shearer’s illustration of a deep-sea creature with the same name. The connection is in part due to the astronomical image resembling a dark gaping mouth-like shape with teeth, two eyes, and a bright fin to the right. In this case the ‘mouth’ is formed by the volume from which the gas has been cleared by the light of the stars, pushed outward to form a shell.

The next step is clear for the researchers from the University of Toronto. Mubdi Rahman, a PhD candidate in the Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics states, “By studying these supermassive stars and the shell surrounding them, we hope to learn more about how energy is transmitted in such extreme environments.”

Published: Friday, 2nd December 2011 by Ellen Haggan