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IRAS 12196-6300

Meet IRAS 12196-6300, the beautiful star in the very center of this image. This star is pretty close to us, only 2,300 light-years away! And it is a young star as well. It is only about 10 million years old and has not yet ignited thermonuclear fusion in its core. This type of star is known as a pre-main sequence star. Once it ignites thermonuclear fusion and begins turning the hydrogen into helium in its core, it will join the main sequence and live out its life.

 

The nebulous dust surrounding it is known as a reflection nebula. The dust and gas are lit up by reflected starlight from stars around or in it.

 

The image was taken on June 6, 2006 by the Hubble Space Telescope. It was an image created using two greyscale images that were colorized in Photoshop CC. The images used were:

 

RED: hst_10536_75_acs_wfc_f814w

SYNTHETIC GREEN: hst_10536_75_acs_wfc_f814w + hst_10536_75_acs_wfc_f606w

BLUE: hst_10536_75_acs_wfc_f606w

 

Resources:

 

These images are associated with Hubble proposal 10536: What Are Stalled Preplanetary Nebulae? An ACS SNAPshot Survey

 

This image was processed by myself, Alexandra Nachman, on 06/18/21 using data from the Hubble Legacy Archive. Images taken by NASA/ESA/Hubble Space Telescope.

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Uploaded on June 19, 2021