In other news from the AAS meeting, the SOFIA airborne observatory has taken new images of the area around the Swan or Omega nebula, and have revealed newly forming stars shining like pin points from the clouds surrounding the familiar swan. By peeling away the visibly opaque gas with the longer wavelength of light, astronomers were able to determine that star formation in this region has come in bursts over time, starting in the center, and with star formation in the outer regions continuing today. 

This is another one of those places that breaks with expectation. We often tell students that star clusters form all at once, with a single burst of star formation that leads to stars of all sizes and the same age. Well, while that may often be true, the Omega Nebula decided it would break with tradition.

Science is in many ways nothing more than a set of overarching guidelines that describe how the rules of physics most often combine to make things happen. While the bulk of the time the halo has old stars, physics still lets there be exceptions. While stars in clusters mostly form all at once, the way clouds collapse and fragment allowed the nebulae to burst more than once. It’s in the exceptions that we often get the most awesome insights, or at the “OH WOW” moments that keep researchers wanting to do research, and to build new telescopes and new spacecraft to explore more parts of the sky. 

See the original press release at:

SOFIA Reveals How the Swan Nebula Hatched (USRA)