Hubble captures an image of the stunning star-forming Prawn Nebula

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

When you look to the stars, you might expect to see a planet, a star, or even the International Space Station, but this week’s Hubble image shows something rather unexpected: A Prawn. The image shows the beautiful Prawn Nebula, located around 6,000 light-years away in the tail portion of the constellation Scorpius.

Despite the nebula’s large size, spanning over 250 light-years, it is rarely imaged as it is very dim, emitting only a small amount of light. The stars which can be seen appear to be a blue-white color, but in addition to this most of the stars within the nebula emit light in other portions of the spectrum that are invisible to the human eye. Hubble images in both the visible light wavelength and the infrared, allowing it to see more details of the beautiful swirls of dust and gas.

Hubble image of a small section of the Prawn Nebula in both visible and invisible infrared light, capturing dazzling detail of the nebula’s structure. — The Prawn Nebula is a massive stellar nursery located in the constellation Scorpius, about 6,000 light-years from Earth. Though the nebula stretches 250 light-years and covers a space four times the size of the full moon, it emits light primarily in wavelengths the human eye cannot detect, making it extremely faint to earthbound viewers. NASA, ESA, and J. Tan (Chalmers University of Technology); Processing; Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

“The Prawn Nebula, also known as IC 4628, is an emission nebula, which means its gas has been energized, or ionized, by the radiation of nearby stars,” Hubble scientists explain. “The radiation from these massive stars strips electrons from the nebula’s hydrogen atoms. As the energized electrons revert from their higher-energy state to a lower-energy state by recombining with hydrogen nuclei, they emit energy in the form of light, causing the nebula’s gas to glow. In this image, red indicates the presence of ionized iron (Fe II) emission.”

Recommended Videos

The nebula is a busy star-forming region, creating both individual stars and clusters of stars. In between these points of light are voids or cavities, which are created when hot stars give off stellar winds which blow away matter like dust and gas.

To show the nebula in its full context, the Hubble scientists also released this image of the full nebula, showing where this particular zoom-in image fits into the whole:

Star map showing location of the Prawn Nebula. — The Prawn Nebula lies south of the star Antares in the constellation Scorpius, the Scorpion. Hubble’s focused view captures just a small portion of the vast star-forming region. NASA, ESA, J. Tan (Chalmers University of Technology), and ESO; Processing; Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

Topics

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Space

Hubble takes first image since switching to new pointing mode

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy NGC 1546.

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of the galaxy NGC 1546. NASA, ESA, STScI, David Thilker (JHU)

The Hubble Space Telescope has been through some troubles of late, and the way that it operates had to be changed recently to compensate for some degraded hardware. The telescope's three gyros, which help it to switch between different targets in the sky, have been experiencing issues, with one in particular frequently failing over recent months. NASA made the decision recently to change the way that Hubble points, and it now uses just one gyro at a time instead of all three in order to preserve the two remaining gyros for as long as possible.

Space

Gorgeous Webb image of Serpens Nebula shows a strange alignment

This image shows the centre of the Serpens Nebula as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam).

The Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth, is home to a particularly dense cluster of newly forming stars (about 100,000 years old), some of which will eventually grow to the mass of our Sun. Webb’s image of this nebula revealed a grouping of aligned protostellar outflows (seen in the top left). These jets are identified by bright clumpy streaks that appear red, which are shock waves caused when the jet hits the surrounding gas and dust. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, K. Pontoppidan (NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory), J. Green (Space Telescope Science Institute)

This stunning new image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows the famous Serpens Nebula, a dense star-forming region where new stars are being born amid clouds of dust and gas. Unlike some other nebulae, which are illuminated by radiation from stars that causes them to glow, this is a type called a reflection nebula, so it only shines due to the light that reflects from other sources.

Space

Hubble will switch to a new mode to preserve its troublesome gyros

An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009.

An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009. NASA

The beloved Hubble Space Telescope will soon be changing the way it operates by limiting the speed at which it can target new objects in order to preserve its lifespan for as long as possible.