Our Universe is the storehouse of mysteries, and even in this advanced world, we have unveiled just a few of them. Now, astronomers from Cambridge University headed by John Ilee have captured a very rare glimpse of a massive star which is in its early stages of life. This newly discovered star is more than 11,000 light-years away from our earth.
If speculations are right, this mammoth kid has more than 30 times the mass of the Sun. Now, the star is in the process of collecting gas and dust from its parent cloud, and it means that it may even grow more once its reaches its maturity.
Space experts call this star a baby, and they predict that the mass may reach new levels in the future. Astronomers call these type of stars as ‘protostars’, and more studies on it are expected to give new insights about the way in which these stellar bodies evolve.
This star now lies in a region known as stellar nurseries. This particular area is known for having a friendly atmosphere for star formation, as it is very cold and dense. It is very hard to study crucial details about these bodies, because they grow and die very quickly.
In a statement released by Cambridge University, John Ilee, the lead author of the study told that an average star like our sun is being formed over a few million years, while massive stars are formed in quick time.
He added that the fuel in these stars burns out very fastly which makes it quite impossible for us to catch it when they are infants.
But the astronomers who have participated in this study have accomplished the unachievable, and they have caught the star during the key stage of its birth.
The study report is now available in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
