NASA shares image of Lagoon Nebula housing a star 32 times more massive than sun

NASA has stunned its fans yet again with a new photograph featuring a nebula in all its glory. The agency recently shared a picture of the Lagoon nebula which is located about 4,000 light-years away from Earth and houses a massive star that is 2,00,000 times brighter than the sun. Taking to Instagram, NASA revealed that the Lagoon nebula is full of turbulent gasses, roaring stellar winds, and intense radiation which comes from a massive star.  

According to the agency, this star is still considerably young on the cosmic scale and has been around only for the last one million years. It further says that the nebula is blasting powerful ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds, "carving out a fantasy landscape of ridges, cavities, and mountains of gas and dust". The image was captured using the Hubble Space telescope's Wide Field Camera 3 in February 2018. 

"The clouds may look majestic and peaceful, but they are in a constant state of flux from the star’s torrent of searing radiation and high-speed particles from stellar winds. As the monster star throws off its natal cocoon of material with its powerful energy, it is suppressing star formation around it", the agency said in a report.

Interesting facts about Lagoon nebula's star

Named Herschel 36, the star has been found unleashing blistering radiation and stellar winds that are pushing the dust away. Hubble's observations also revealed that the star's continuous violent activity has blasted holes in the bubble-shaped cloud. NASA says that this star is approximately 32 times more massive than the sun and is nearly nine times its diameter. Owing to its massive size, Herschel is estimated to linger around for another five million years. In comparison, the sun in our solar system is five billion years old and will live for another five billion years, NASA says. 

On April 24, the Hubble Telescope celebrated its 32nd anniversary since its launch three decades ago in 1990. Notably, the telescope is suffering a number of glitches and is expected to retire before the end of this decade.