How can something as big as a star go undetected? The answer is dust. Stellar nursery DR21 is shrouded in so much space dust that no visible light escapes it. By seeing in the infrared, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope pulls this veil aside. The new observations reveal a firework-like display of massive stars surrounded by a stormy cloud of gas.
How can something as big as a star go undetected? The answer is dust. Stellar nursery DR21 is shrouded in so much space dust that no visible light escapes it. By seeing in the infrared, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope pulls this veil aside. The new observations reveal a firework-like display of massive stars surrounded by a stormy cloud of gas and dust. The biggest star is estimated to be 100,000 times as bright as our own sun.Image credit: NASA/JPL/Caltech