Star-Forming Region Sharpless 2-106 as imaged by the GTC

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This image was acquired by the Gran Telescopio Canarias, aka GTC or GRANTECAN. Known as Sharpless 2-106 (Sh2-106), the hourglass-shaped nebula is a stellar nursery made up of glowing gas and light-scattering dust. The material shrouds a natal high-mass star thought to be mostly responsible for the hourglass shape of the nebula due to high-speed winds which eject material from the forming star deep within. Research also indicates that many sub-stellar objects are forming within the cloud and may someday result in a cluster of 50 to 150 stars in this region. Massive star IRS 4 is beginning to spread its wings. Born only about 100,000 years ago, material streaming out from this newborn star has formed Sharpless 2-106, pictured above. A large disk of dust and gas orbiting Infrared Source 4 (IRS 4), visible in dark red near the image center, gives the nebula an hourglass or butterfly shape. S106 gas near IRS 4 acts as an emission nebula as it emits light after being ionized, while dust far from IRS 4 reflects light from the central star and so acts as a reflection nebula. Detailed inspection of images like the above image has revealed hundreds of low-mass brown dwarf stars lurking in the nebula's gas. Sh2-106 spans about 2 light-years and lies about 2000 light-years away toward the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan).
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Credit: Grand Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC)