An intriguing and beautiful nebula (residing in the star forming region called RCW 57), NGC 3576 drifts through the Sagittarius arm of our spiral Milky Way Galaxy. Within the region, episodes of star formation are thought to contribute to the complex and suggestive shapes. Powerful winds from the nebula's embedded, young, massive stars, which have formed in the past few million years, shape the looping filaments.

The dramatic pure-RGB image also highlights the contributions of hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen, energized by intense ultraviolet radiation, to the nebular glow. But the glow also silhouettes dense clouds of dust and gas. For example, the many condensing dark clouds near occupying the top of the picture offer potential sites for the formation of new stars.

A detailed study of NGC 3582, also known as NGC 3584 and NGC 3576, uncovered at least 33 massive stars in the end stages of formation, and the clear presence of the complex carbon molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). PAHs are thought to be created in the cooling gas of star forming regions, and their development in the Sun's formation nebula five billion years ago may have been an
important step in the development of life on Earth.

NGC 3576 itself is about 100 light-years across and 9,000 light-years away in the southern constellation of Carina, not far on the sky from the famous Eta Carinae Nebula http://www.pbase.com/boren/image/154554057/original).
(Ref. http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130611.html and http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080326.html)

At the center-left edge of the image is NGC 3603, a much larger but more distant star forming region. NGC 3603 is an open cluster of stars situated in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way around 20,000 light-years away from the Solar System. It is embedded among numerous molecular clouds (e.g. MM 10 - see: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%5BNBY2002%5D+MM+10&NbIdent=1) and has been
subject to intense study as a starburst region for more than a century because it represents a unique combination of proximity, low visual extinction, brightness and compactness.

It was observed by John Herschel on the 14th of March 1834 during his visit to South Africa, who remarked that it was "a very remarkable object... perhaps a globular cluster". Herschel catalogued it as nebula 3334 in his Results of Astronomical Observations made at the Cape of Good Hope, published in 1847. In 1864 the Royal Society published his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters, where he listed it as number 2354. It was subsequently incorporated into the New General Catalogue as by J. L. E. Dreyer as NGC 3603 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3603).

The star cluster at the center-top part of the image is open cluster NGC 3590 http://www.univie.ac.at/webda/cgi-bin/ocl_page.cgi?dirname=ngc3590),
just "above" the dark molecular cloud G291.40-0.20 http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%5BDB2002b%5D+G291.40-0.20&NbIdent=1).

Daten zum Bild