Using the Gemini South telescope, astronomers from the US National Science Foundation's (NSF) NOIRLab have captured a nebula surrounding the young star cluster NGC 2040 that looks like an open (pulsating) rose in the image.
NGC 2040 is located about 160,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Dorado. Also known as CAL 60 or ESO 56-164, the cluster is located within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way. NGC 2040 is a so-called OB compound, a stellar group that typically contains 10-100 O and B-type stars.
"Stars of spectral types O and B have short lives of a few million years, during which they burn very hot before exploding as supernovae. The energy released by the explosions of these massive stars fuels the formation of the structure of NGC 2040, while the material ejected seeds the growth of the next generation of stars," the NOIRLab astronomers report. It is thought that most stars in our galaxy were born in OB associations similar to NGC 2040.
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