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IRAS 20324+4057 - Protostar, Samara

IRAS 20324+4057 - Protostar

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IRAS 20324+4057 - Protostar, Samara

IRAS 20324+4057 - Protostar

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Description

This is one of my favorite Hubble images and one of the most challenging to process I had to date, but it was fun!

IRAS 20324+4057 is a mixture of interstellar gas and dust that extends a light year in length in the Cygnus constellation, 4500 light years away. It has been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope and has been nicknamed a "Cosmic Caterpillar", as it resembles a crawling caterpillar. The head of the object is a protostar, but the presence of 65 O-type stars, which tend to scatter the matter accumulated by the Cosmic caterpillar, leaves doubt whether the caterpillar will survive and mature into a star.

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IRAS 20324+4057 - Protostar, Samara