Cloud of Dust

European Space Agency’s Herschel Space Observatory while obtaining one of the sharpest image of a huge cloud of gas and dust, NGC 7538 has spotted a weird ring of dusty material.

NGC 7538 is a gas cloud about 8,800 light-years away from the earth located in the constellation Cepheus. The cloud has a mass of the order of 400,000 suns which is currently undergoing an intense bout of star formation. The observation is part of a study to learn more about how stars form and come into being.

The mysterious ring with a mass of 500 suns is oval in shape with its outer axis spanning 35 light-years and inner spanning 25 light-years. Researchers aren’t exactly sure about how it was formed or created. The best assumption is that it was formed after a huge star blew up and the ring is its remnant. The dust cloud holds 13 clumps of material which in the future may turn out to be massive stars.