Pacman Nebula Chomps Down on Ghostly Gas and Dust

[n2doc]

By Adam Mann October 27, 2011 | 2:29 pm | Categories: Space


Just in time for Halloween, the Pacman Nebula appears to have grown some spooky fangs. While this giant cloud of gas and dust typically displays the more characteristic outline of the 1980s arcade game star, images from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) show the Pacman Nebula with long, sharp “teeth.”

That’s because the Pacman Nebula — located 9,200 light-years away in the constellation Cassiopeia — is usually captured using visible wavelengths of light (see below), whereas WISE images things in the infrared, revealing new features.

The showy chompers are actually long columns of gas and dust shaped by newborn stars, of which the Pacman Nebula has multitudes. These young stars give off heat and radiation, carving out interesting shapes in the surrounding material. Researchers think such pressure squeezes the matter at the tips of each tooth enough to trigger further star formation.

in visible light:


http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/10/pacman-nebula-teeth/