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David Aguilar (617) 495-7462
Christine Pulliam (617) 495-7463
pubaffairs@cfa
Press Release Feed
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Release No.: 2005-33
For Release: Tuesday, October 04, 2005
It Takes Three Smithsonian Observatories To Decipher One Mystery Object 
Three Smithsonian observatories joined forces to decipher the nature of one mystery object. The dark cosmic cloud dubbed L1014 was thought to be a "starless core," but infrared and submillimeter data revealed that it contains a low-mass star or brown dwarf that is still forming.
At top left is the optical image of L1014, with contours of 1.2 mm dust emission, and the field-of-view of the Spitzer images indicated by the box. The position of young brown dwarf or protostar (dubbed L1014-IRS) is indicated. At top right is a 3-color image using the Spitzer data, color-coded by wavelength. At bottom left is the 8-micron-only image, at bottom middle is a near-infrared image from the MMT revealing a scattered light nebula typically seen around young stellar objects, thought to be due to a cavity evacuated by an outflow. At bottom right is the confirmation that L1014-IRS drives a bipolar outflow, seen with the Submillimeter Array. The outflow velocities associate the infrared source with starless core L1014 at a distance of 200 parsecs, thus confirming its low luminosity and mass. Credit: Tyler Bourke & Tracy Huard (CfA)High Resolution Image (jpg) Low Resolution Image (jpg) | |
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