Hubble telescope captures an image of Prawn Nebula: All you need to know

NASA recently released a stunning image of the Prawn Nebula, a huge gas and dust cloud, as captured by its Hubble Space Telescope. NASA had undertaken a survey of extremely large to intermediate-sized newly forming stars, which are referred to as ‘protostars.’ It was during this very survey that this unprecedented image was taken. Here is all you need to know about the Prawn Nebula, and why it made news. 

What is the Prawn Nebula? 
A nebula is essentially a gigantic cloud of dust and gas in space. It acts as a nursery for the formation of new stars. Here, individual stars as well as multiple clusters of stars are created. The Prawn Nebula, which is also called IC 4628 or Gum 56, was discovered by an American astronomer named Edward Emerson Bernard around 1900. It is classified by astronomers as an emission nebula. Emission nebulas are those whose gas has been energised or iodised as a result of the radiation of newly forming or new-born stars (protostars.) This recently captured nebula a part of constellation Scorpius, and is located in the Sagittarius arm of the Milky Way galaxy. Its estimated distance from the Earth is 6000 light years, and has a diameter of about 250 light years. This means that it is 3-4 times the size of the moon! 

How do emission nebulas function? 
Such a nebula gets formed through the emission of light of different wavelengths by ionised gases. More often than not, this ionisation is a result of the high-energy ultraviolet photons emitted by massive stars located in close vicinity. Their radiation removes the electrons from the hydrogen atoms of the nebula. As the nebula converts from high-energy state to a low-energy state, energy is emitted in the form of light which causes it to glow.  

Observations of the Prawn Nebula image 
Although this nebula is massive in size, capturing its image has been an extremely tricky task for NASA. This is because it emits only a negligible amount of light, therefore, it is incredibly dim. It cannot be perceived by the naked human eye from Earth. Hubble Space Telescope, however, managed to secure an image of a small section of this emission nebula in both visible and invisible infrared light. The image showcases its structure in detail- specifically the areas with the presence of glowing gas which appear to be intensely bright with stunning swirls.