Explanation:
Young suns still lie
within dusty NGC 7129, some
3,000 light-years away toward the royal
constellation
Cepheus.
While these stars are at a relatively tender age,
only about a million years old, it is likely
that our own Sun formed in a similar stellar nursery some
five billion years ago.
Most noticeable in
the
striking image are the lovely bluish dust clouds
that reflect the youthful starlight,
but the smaller, deep
red crescent shapes are also markers of energetic,
young stellar objects.
Known as
Herbig-Haro
objects, their shape and color is
characteristic of glowing hydrogen gas
shocked by jets
streaming away from newborn stars.
Ultimately the natal gas and dust in the region
will be dispersed, the
stars
drifting apart as the loose
cluster orbits the center of the Galaxy.
At the estimated distance of
NGC 7129, this telescopic view spans
about 40 light-years.
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