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RCW 38 is a
star-forming region in the southern
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The first constellati ...
of
Vela (known as the Sails).
It includes an embedded
HII region and a
super star cluster. This region is located at a distance of approximately from the Sun.
[
This is the youngest super star cluster in the ]Milky Way
The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
galaxy, with age estimates ranging from 0.1 to 1.0 Myr. It has around 10,000 member stars.[ The cluster member stars are still enshrouded within the dark cloud in which they were born.][ Jets emerging from young protostars drive further star formation in the surrounding cloud.][
The cluster includes about 20 massive O-type stars concentrated in a volume a few parsecs across. The latter stars are having a dissipative effect on the surrounding molecular gas.][ Five bow shocks have been identified coming from these objects, driven by strong stellar winds.][ When these massive stars die, likely before the dispersal of the cluster, they will explode as ]supernovae
A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion. The original ob ...
.molecular cloud
A molecular cloud—sometimes called a stellar nursery if star formation is occurring within—is a type of interstellar cloud of which the density and size permit absorption nebulae, the formation of molecules (most commonly molecular hydrogen, ...
s.[ The primary cloud has a mass of , while the secondary cloud has .][
In the infrared, the brightest star in this region is designated IRS 2.][ This is a ]binary star
A binary star or binary star system is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved as separate stars us ...
system consisting of two spectral type O5.5 stars. It is located at the heart of the cluster,[ and appears to lie at the center of the H II region.][ The second brightest source is a dust ridge designated IRS 1, positioned about to the west of IRS 2. Both sources are surrounded by a dust-free cavity about across.][
RCW 38 includes Gum 22, Gum 23, and Gum 24.]
Gallery
File:RCW38Location.png, The location of RCW 38 (circled in red)
File:The Young Stellar Cluster RCW 38 in X-ray.jpg, An X-ray view of the dense central star cluster
File:Billions of new neighbours?.jpg, Central part of RCW 38, showing some of the brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs are substellar objects that have more mass than the biggest gas giant planets, but less than the least massive main sequence, main-sequence stars. Their mass is approximately 13 to 80 Jupiter mass, times that of Jupiter ()not big en ...
candidates detected within the cluster
References
Further reading
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External links
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Vela (constellation)
Open clusters
Star-forming regions
{{Vela (constellation)