Young stars in Rho Ophiuchi - Young stars in Rho Ophiuchi - Image of the...

Young stars in Rho Ophiuchi - Young stars in Rho Ophiuchi - Image of the central part of Rho Ophiuchi obtained in infrared by the Spitzer space telescope. Rho Ophiuchi is a vast dark cloud of molecular hydrogen located 407 years - light from Earth in the constellations of Ophiuchus and Scorpio. More than 300 young stars aged only 300,000 years have been observed. On this picture in false colors highlighting the temperature differences present in this cloud, the younger stars appear in red, the more evolute stars in blue. Newborn stars peek out from beneath their natal blanket of dust in this dynamic image of the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud from Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called “” Rho Oph””” by astronomers, it's one of the closest star - forming regions to our own solar system. Located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, the nebula is about 407 light years away from Earth. Rho Oph is a complex made up of a large main cloud of molecular hydrogen, a key molecule allowing new stars to form from cold cosmic gas, with two long streamers trailing off in different directions. Recent studies using the latest X - ray and infrared observations reveal more than 300 young stellar objects within the large central cloud. Their median age is only 300,000 years, very young compared to some of the university's oldest stars, which are more than 12 billion years old. This false - color image of Rho Oph's main cloud, Lynds 1688, was created with data from Spitzer's infrared array camera, and its multiband imaging photometer, best for detecting cooler materials. Blue represents 3.6 - micron light; green shows light of 8 microns; and red is 24 - micron light. The multiple wavelengths reveal different aspects of the dust surrounding and between the embedded stars, yielding information about the stars and their birthplace. The colors in this image reflect the relative temperatures and evolutionary states of the