Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? In Space!!

The Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has detected a number of wonderful things from new galaxies, amazing star formations, and even a snowman? That’s right, a new release from the HST’s archive shows an incredible space “snowman” filled with glowing gas. The nebula is called the Snowman Nebula, a cloud of gas and dust in deep space. The HST detected the objects from a distance of 6000 light-years away.

Snowman Nebula

The HST first discovered the nebula during a survey of massive- and intermediate-size “prostars” (prostars are newly forming stars). The HST was able to use its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument to look for hydrogen that was ionized by ultraviolet light. This ultraviolet light originates from prostars and jets from stars.

The image of the snowman nebula was recovered from the survey on November 7, 2021 (first image), and the Wide Field Camera 3 image on November 21, 2021 (second image).

However, the HST is nearing its end in the next decade. Recently, there have been multiple issues with the HST, including a synchronization error. The HST is in a protective “safe mode” as ground engineers are trying to troubleshoot the issues. Even James E. Webb Telescope is nearing launch, with its launch date being December 18, 2021. The HST is one of the most important engineering inventions of all time that has taught us what we now know about space, but the end is near for it.

Survey Snowman Nebula Was Discovered In

Sources:

Howell, Elizabeth. “Hubble Telescope Sees a Space 'Snowman' Thousands of Light-Years Away.” Space.com, Space, 24 Nov. 2021, https://www.space.com/hubble-telescope-space-snowman-photo.