Coronet: A Star-Formation Neighbor | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (Infrared)

Coronet: A Star-Formation Neighbor | NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (Infrared)

While perhaps not quite as well known as its star formation cousin of Orion, the Corona Australis region (containing, at its heart, the Coronet Cluster) is one of the nearest and most active regions of ongoing star formation. At only about 420 light years away, the Coronet is over three times closer than the Orion Nebula is to Earth. The Coronet contains a loose cluster of a few dozen young stars with a wide range of masses and at various stages of evolution, giving astronomers an opportunity to observe "protostars" simultaneously in several wavelengths.

This composite image shows the Coronet in X-rays from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (CXO) and infrared from NASA Spitzer Space Telescope orange, green, and cyan. The Spitzer data show young stars plus diffuse emission from dust.

Image Credit: NASA/CXC/JPL-Caltech/CfA

Image Date: Sept. 13, 2007

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