Very Large Array

Astronomers Witness Star Formation Over 18 Years

Medicine & Technology Over the last 18 years, astronomers have observed the formation of a massive new star, dubbed W75N(B)-VLA 2. A pair of images of a young star, taken 18 years apart, has revealed dramatic differences providing astronomers with a one of a kind “real time” look at how massive stars develop during the earliest stages of their formation.

Astronomers Adopt a Forming Star, Watching it Grow for 18 Years 4200 Light-Years Away

While researchers may have missed the formation of our very own Sun by a few billion years, in essence they have become surrogate parents to many other stars formed since the dawn of the telescope. Watching one such infant star well into its adulthood, researchers with the National Radio Astronomy Observatory this week released a time lapse of one such star, affectionately named “W75N(B)-VLA 2”, which reveals the earliest formations of a massive young star over the course of 18 years. The beginning and ending images released this week reveal a dramatic difference in the star’s developmental stages and highlights theories that astronomers have posited for decades, as they wondered if they would ever catch a glimpse of stars forming in such a way as researchers today have been able to do.
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