Glowing Stellar Nurseries*

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Colour composite image of RCW120. It reveals how an expanding bubble of ionised gas about ten light-years across is causing the surrounding material to collapse into dense clumps where new stars are then formed. The 870-micron submillimetre-wavelength data were taken with the LABOCA camera on the 12-m Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) telescope. Here, the submillimetre emission is shown as the blue clouds surrounding the reddish glow of the ionised gas (shown with data from the SuperCosmos H-alpha survey). The image also contains data from the Second Generation Digitized Sky Survey (I-band shown in blue, R-band shown in red).

This image is available as a mounted image in the ESOshop

Credit:

ESO/APEX/DSS2/ SuperCosmos/ Deharveng(LAM)/ Zavagno(LAM)

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About the Image

Id:	eso0840a
Type:	Observation
Release date:	11 November 2008
Related releases:	eso0840
Size:	1872 x 2348 px

About the Object

Name:	RCW120
Type:	• Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Star Formation • Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission : H II Region • Nebulae
Distance:	4500 light years

Mounted Image

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Coordinates

Position (RA):	17h 12m 24.03s
Position (Dec):	-38° 28' 11.49"
Field of view:	31.40 x 39.38 arcminutes
Orientation:	North is 1.8° right of vertical

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Colours & filters

Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Millimeter Submillimetre	870 μm	Atacama Pathfinder Experiment LABOCA
Optical B		Digitized Sky Survey 2
Optical Pseudogreen (R+I)		Digitized Sky Survey 2
Optical R		Digitized Sky Survey 2
Optical R		Other