# @nasa on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CljqFC4PKkb
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/2385963-nasa-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/6eae9c50ea.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-11-29T19:48:17.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** NASA (@NASA) — https://gondola.cc/NASA

## Caption

Regulators, mount up! 🌟

A new study has revealed a star cluster that can regulate itself, allowing only a limited number of stars to grow before the biggest and brightest among them expel most of the gas from the system. This process is thought to restrict new star creation.

Astronomers used data from NASAChandraXRay, NASA’s airborne sofiatelescope, the APEX telescope, and ESA’s Herschel space observatory to study a distant star-forming complex located in the Milky Way about 2,900 light-years from Earth. These types of star-forming areas are made up of large gas clouds that are rich in the stellar components needed to form new stars.

By analyzing data from this comprehensive array of telescopes, astronomers are able to witness that the powerful stars near the center of the cluster are expelling most of the raw materials within the star-forming region at high rates, on a course to deplete star-forming resources in about one to two million years. Although millions of years seem like a long time from the perspective of humans, relative to the lifespan of stars it is quite quick. 

This high-speed rate of resource consumption will ultimately slow new star development in the region in a process astronomers call “stellar feedback.” This process will clear out the raw material needed to form stars, drastically suppressing their continued birth in the region, which would better align with astronomers’ predictions for how quickly stars form in clusters.

Image Description: A colorful composite image of a large gas cloud. The assembly of stellar dust is a mustard yellow, burnt orange, royal blue, and violet cloud. White dots pepper the image marking new stars. The stars peek through thin gaps in the gas cloud near the center of the image. These gaps are surrounded by a loose band of bright yellow gas. In the upper and lower left of the image, gauzy blues and purples dominate the cloud. To the right, darkened puffs of moss yellow cloud are set against a black background.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Ames Research Center/L. Bonne et al.; Infrared: ESA/NASA.JPL-Caltech/Herschel Space Observatory/JPL/IPAC

#NASA #Space #ChandraXray #Stars #MilkyWay #Cosmos #SOFIA  #WarrenG

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## Tags

cosmos, sofia, nasa, warreng, space, milkyway, chandraxray, stars

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