Sometimes, science is just pretty. Researcher Christopher Dupree and his students have acquired new, high-resolution images of the W49A star-forming region using the Very Large Array (VLA). Combined with data from the IRAM Northern Extended Millimeter Array, they were able to spy new details. According to the paper, published in The Astronomical Journal, these observations reveal new morphologies, new structures, to the forming stars and their surroundings. This includes a bipolar structure associated with one of the stars and the revelation that one of the sources can be resolved into three sub-sources in the higher-res images.

What all this means is for another paper and another day. For now, we encourage you to go to our website, DailySpace.org, and check out this image in its full, high-resolution glory.

More Information

NRAO press release

“Time-variable Radio Recombination Line Emission in W49A,” C. G. De Pree et al., 2020 October 29, The Astronomical Journal