An amazing image of the Orion A molecular cloud has been captured by astronomers. The picture was taken using the VISTA infrared survey telescope at ESO's Paranal Observatory in northern Chile.
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Located 1,350 light years away from Earth, the Orion A molecular cloud is situated around 8 degrees to the south of Orion's sword in the constellation Orion. Orion A is considered to be the largest known star factory.
The molecular cloud comprises numerous young stars and other celestial objects deep inside the clouds and cosmic gas which hampers visual obervation from Earth.
The VISTA telescope has so far aided astronomers in spotting around 8,00,000 stars and protostars (stars that are in the early stages of their formation, before nucleosynthesis begins).
According to a Space.com report, the team of researchers even found five new protostars in this stellar nursery.
The VISTA telescope is an infrared telescope that can easily detect objects in space that are otherwise invisible to other optical telescopes.
The image of the molecular cloud shows star formation processes taking place in Orion A.
An Orion Nebula also known as Messier 42 can be seen towards the left of the image. Also, materials with the potential to give birth to pre-stellar discs or new stars have also been spotted. We can also now identify galaxy clusters along the smaller clusters of stars situated far from our home galaxy of the Milky Way.
The detailed picture of the Orion A molecular cloud taken by astronomers could now help them carrying out further research on the formation of stars and clusters.
According to Phy.org, this image also showcases the brilliant ability of the VISTA telescope to immediately capture images in space.
