Along the Taurus Molecular Cloud
Image Credit &
Copyright:
Yuexiao Shen,
Joe Hua
The cosmic brush of star formation composed
this interstellar canvas
of emission, dust, and dark nebulae.
A 5 degree wide telescopic mosaic, it frames a region
found north of bright star Aldebaran on the sky,
at an inner wall of
the local bubble
along the Taurus molecular cloud.
At lower left, emission cataloged as
Sh2-239
shows signs of embedded young stellar objects.
The region's
Herbig-Haro objects,
nebulosities associated
with newly born stars,
are marked by
tell-tale reddish jets of shocked hydrogen gas.
Above and right T Tauri,
the prototype of the class of
T Tauri variable stars,
is next to a yellowish nebula historically known as Hind's Variable
Nebula (NGC 1555).
T Tauri stars are now generally recognized as young,
less than a few million years old,
sun-like stars still in the early
stages of formation.