NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope recently captured protostellar object OH 339.88-1.26, which is located 8,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Ara. The winding lanes of dark dust are thread throughout this image, which can be seen studded with bright stars crowned with criss-crossing diffraction spikes.
What really stands out in this image is the dark vertical streak in the center, as it is an astrophysical maser. A maser (microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is basically a laser that generates coherent light at microwave wavelengths. These objects can occur naturally in astrophysical situations, such as in environments ranging from the north pole of Jupiter to star-forming regions like OH 339.88-1.26.
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This image comes from a set of Hubble observations that peer into the hearts of regions where massive stars are born to constrain the nature of massive protostars and test theories of their formation. Astronomers turned to Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to explore the massive protostar G339.88-1.26, which is estimated to be about 20 times the mass of the Sun and is lurking in the dusty clouds in the center of the image,” said the ESA.
