Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. A. Gutermuth (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

Steamy Star in NGC 1333

This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a stellar nursery called NGC 1333. Spitzer discovered that a pre-planetary disk of dust surrounding an embryonic star within this region, called NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, is drenched with water vapor.

NGC 1333 is located about 1,000 light-years away in the Perseus constellation. It is a cloud of gas and dust that is busy manufacturing new stars. Spitzer surveyed four of the very youngest stars in this region and 26 others elsewhere, but found only one, NGC 1333-IRAS 4B, with water vapor. This might be because NGC 1333-IRAS 4B is in just the right orientation for Spitzer to view deep inside the developing star system and detect the water vapor.

About the Object	Object Name: NGC 1333 Object Type: Reflection Nebula Position (J2000): RA: 3h 29m 04s Dec: +31d18m50s Distance: 1,000 light-years Constellation: Perseus
About the Data	Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. A. Gutermuth (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) Instrument: IRAC Wavelength: 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange), 8.0 microns (red) Exposure Date: February 10, 2004 and September 8, 2004 Exposure Time: 48 seconds per position in combined mosaics Field of View: 26 x 34 arcmin Orientation: 14.5 deg CCW from up Release Date: November 15, 2005
Observers	Rob Gutermuth (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Alicia Porras (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Lori Allen (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Rebecca Dell (Harvard University) Phil Myers (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) Tom Megeath (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics) James Muzerolle (Steward Observatory/University of Arizona) Judy Pipher (University of Rochester)

Individual Images

Full-resolution image without packaging or callout Screen-Resolution (349x450): JPEG High-Resolution (2100x2705): JPEG | Mac TIFF | PC TIFF Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. A. Gutermuth (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

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