IRAS 13481-6124 and its cradle

The object IRAS 13481-6124 (the bright "star" upper left), which consists of a young central star, about twenty times the mass of our Sun and five times its radius, surrounded by its pre-natal cocoon, is the first massive baby star for which astronomers could obtain an image of a dusty disc closely encircling it, providing direct evidence that massive stars do form in the same way as their smaller brethren — and closing an enduring debate.

From archival images obtained by the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope (seen here) as well as from observations done with the APEX 12-metre sub-millimetre telescope, astronomers discovered the presence of a jet, hinting at the presence of a disc. This was then confirmed by observations made with the ESO Very Large Telescope Interferometer.

Credit:

ESO/Spitzer/NASA/JPL/S. Kraus

About the Image

Id:eso1029c
Type:Observation
Release date:14 July 2010, 19:00
Related releases:eso1029
Size:1425 x 1503 px

About the Object

Name:IRAS 13481-6124
Type:Milky Way : Star : Circumstellar Material : Disk
Milky Way : Star : Evolutionary Stage : Young Stellar Object
Distance:10000 light years
Constellation:Centaurus
Category:Stars

Image Formats

Large JPEG
1.2 MB
Screensize JPEG
578.1 KB

Zoomable


Wallpapers

1024x768
552.2 KB
1280x1024
833.3 KB
1600x1200
955.1 KB
1920x1200
1023.3 KB
2048x1536
1.3 MB

Coordinates

Position (RA):13 50 48.49
Position (Dec):-61° 45' 41.77"
Field of view:28.98 x 30.57 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.3° right of vertical

Colours & filters

BandWavelengthTelescope
Infrared
Near-IR
3.6 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infrared
Mid-IR
4.5 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infrared
Mid-IR
5.8 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)
Infrared
Mid-IR
8.0 μm Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAC (Spitzer)