Cosmic rays are subatomic particles — mainly protons — that move through space at nearly the speed of light. In their journey across the galaxy, the particles are deflected by magnetic fields, which scramble their paths and make it impossible to backtrack the particles to their sources. Yet when cosmic rays collide with interstellar gas, they produce gamma rays — the most energetic and penetrating form of light — that travel to us straight from the source.
The Cygnus X star factory is located about 4,500 light-years away and is believed to contain enough raw material to make two million stars like our sun. Within it are many young star clusters and several sprawling groups of related O- and B-type stars, called OB associations. One, called Cygnus OB2, contains 65 O stars — the most massive, luminous and hottest type — and nearly 500 B stars. These massive stars possess intense outflows that clear out cavities in the region's gas clouds. A tangled web of shockwaves associated with this process impedes the movement of cosmic rays throughout the region. Cosmic rays striking gas nuclei or photons from starlight produce the gamma rays Fermi detects.
The release on NASA.gov is here.", "items": [], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 350579, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10878/#media_group_350579", "widget": "Video player", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Tour the Cygnus X star factory. This video opens with wide optical and infrared images of the constellation Cygnus, then zooms into the Cygnus X region using radio, infrared and gamma-ray images. Fermi LAT shows that gamma rays fill cavities in the star-forming clouds. The emission occurs when fast-moving cosmic rays strike hot gas and starlight.
Watch this video on the NASAexplorer YouTube channel.
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Credit: NASA/IPAC/MSX", "items": [ { "id": 325992, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481017, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/MSX_labeled_new.jpg", "filename": "MSX_labeled_new.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Cygnus X hosts many young stellar groupings, including the OB2 and OB9 associations and the cluster NGC 6910. The combined outflows and ultraviolet radiation from the region's numerous massive stars have heated and pushed gas away from the clusters, producing cavities of hot, lower-density gas. In this 8-micron infrared image, ridges of denser gas mark the boundaries of the cavities. Bright spots within these ridges show where stars are forming today. Labeled.Credit: NASA/IPAC/MSX", "width": 1617, "height": 1617, "pixels": 2614689 } }, { "id": 325993, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481018, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/MSX_labeled_new_web.png", "filename": "MSX_labeled_new_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Cygnus X hosts many young stellar groupings, including the OB2 and OB9 associations and the cluster NGC 6910. The combined outflows and ultraviolet radiation from the region's numerous massive stars have heated and pushed gas away from the clusters, producing cavities of hot, lower-density gas. In this 8-micron infrared image, ridges of denser gas mark the boundaries of the cavities. Bright spots within these ridges show where stars are forming today. Labeled.Credit: NASA/IPAC/MSX", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 350583, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10878/#media_group_350583", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "Cygnus X hosts many young stellar groupings, including the OB2 and OB9 associations and the cluster NGC 6910. The combined outflows and ultraviolet radiation from the region's numerous massive stars have heated and pushed gas away from the clusters, producing cavities of hot, lower-density gas. In this 8-micron infrared image, ridges of denser gas mark the boundaries of the cavities. Bright spots within these ridges show where stars are forming today. Unlabeled.
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Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration/I. A. Grenier and L. Tibaldo", "items": [ { "id": 325999, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481024, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray.jpg", "filename": "Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Gamma-ray emission detected by Fermi LAT fills bubbles of hot gas created by the most massive stars in Cygnus X. The turbulence and shock waves produced by these stars make it more difficult for high-energy cosmic rays to traverse the region. When the particles strike gas nuclei or photons of starlight, gamma rays result. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration/I. A. Grenier and L. Tibaldo", "width": 1617, "height": 1617, "pixels": 2614689 } }, { "id": 325998, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481023, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray_web.png", "filename": "Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Gamma-ray emission detected by Fermi LAT fills bubbles of hot gas created by the most massive stars in Cygnus X. The turbulence and shock waves produced by these stars make it more difficult for high-energy cosmic rays to traverse the region. When the particles strike gas nuclei or photons of starlight, gamma rays result. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration/I. A. Grenier and L. Tibaldo", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } }, { "id": 325997, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481022, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray.tif", "filename": "Fermi_LAT_Gamma_ray.tif", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Gamma-ray emission detected by Fermi LAT fills bubbles of hot gas created by the most massive stars in Cygnus X. The turbulence and shock waves produced by these stars make it more difficult for high-energy cosmic rays to traverse the region. When the particles strike gas nuclei or photons of starlight, gamma rays result. Credit: NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration/I. A. Grenier and L. Tibaldo", "width": 1617, "height": 1617, "pixels": 2614689 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 350585, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10878/#media_group_350585", "widget": "Single image", "title": "", "caption": "", "description": "This image merges an infrared view of gas clouds in Cygnus X with the Fermi LAT gamma-ray data.
Credit: NASA/DOE/LAT Collaboration and IPAC/MSX", "items": [ { "id": 326000, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481025, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/MSX_LAT_merged.jpg", "filename": "MSX_LAT_merged.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This image merges an infrared view of gas clouds in Cygnus X with the Fermi LAT gamma-ray data. Credit: NASA/DOE/LAT Collaboration and IPAC/MSX", "width": 1617, "height": 1617, "pixels": 2614689 } }, { "id": 326001, "type": "media", "extra_data": null, "title": null, "caption": null, "instance": { "id": 481026, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a010800/a010878/MSX_LAT_merged_web.png", "filename": "MSX_LAT_merged_web.png", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "This image merges an infrared view of gas clouds in Cygnus X with the Fermi LAT gamma-ray data. Credit: NASA/DOE/LAT Collaboration and IPAC/MSX", "width": 320, "height": 320, "pixels": 102400 } } ], "extra_data": {} }, { "id": 350586, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10878/#media_group_350586", "widget": "Basic text", "title": "For More Information", "caption": "", "description": "See [http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/cygnus-cocoon.html](http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GLAST/news/cygnus-cocoon.html)", "items": [], "extra_data": {} } ], "studio": "gms", "funding_sources": [ "NASA Astrophysics" ], "credits": [ { "role": "Animator", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] }, { "role": "Video editor", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] }, { "role": "Producer", "people": [ { "name": "Scott Wiessinger", "employer": "USRA" } ] }, { "role": "Science writer", "people": [ { "name": "Francis Reddy", "employer": "University of Maryland College Park" } ] }, { "role": "Graphics", "people": [ { "name": "Francis Reddy", "employer": "University of Maryland College Park" } ] } ], "missions": [ "Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope" ], "series": [ "Astrophysics Stills", "Astrophysics Visualizations" ], "tapes": [ "Gamma rays in the Heart of Cygnus (Produced by: Robert Crippen)" ], "papers": [], "datasets": [ { "name": "", "common_name": "", "platform": "Fermi", "sensor": null, "type": "Other", "organizations": [], "description": "", "credit": "", "url": "", "date_range": null } ], "nasa_science_categories": [ "Universe" ], "keywords": [ "Ast", "Astrophysics", "Earth Science", "Edited Feature", "Fermi", "Gamma Ray", "HDTV", "Hyperwall", "Infrared", "Satellite", "Space", "Space science", "Spectral/Engineering", "Star", "Supernova" ], "recommended_pages": [], "related": [ { "id": 11109, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11109/", "page_type": "Produced Video", "title": "X-ray Satellites Monitor the Clashing Winds of a Colossal Binary", "description": "One of the nearest and richest OB associations in our galaxy is Cygnus OB2, which is located about 4,700 light-years away and hosts some 3,000 hot stars, including about 100 in the O class. Weighing in at more than a dozen times the sun's mass and sporting surface temperatures five to ten times hotter, these ginormous blue-white stars blast their surroundings with intense ultraviolet light and powerful outflows called stellar winds. Two of these stars can be found in the intriguing binary system known as Cygnus OB2 #9. In 2011, NASA's Swift satellite, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton observatory and several ground-based facilities took part in a campaign to monitor the system as the giant stars raced toward their closest approach. The observations are giving astronomers a more detailed picture of the stars, their orbits and the interaction of their stellar winds. An O-type star is so luminous that the pressure of its starlight actually drives material from its surface, creating particle outflows with speeds of several million miles an hour. Put two of these humongous stars in the same system and their winds can collide during all or part of the orbit, creating both radio emission and X-rays.In 2008, research showed that Cygnus OB2 #9 emitted radio signals that varied every 2.355 years. In parallel, Yael Naz || ", "release_date": "2012-10-12T10:00:00-04:00", "update_date": "2023-05-03T13:52:42.733027-04:00", "main_image": { "id": 471708, "url": "https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011100/a011109/Colliding_Winds_Still_1.jpg", "filename": "Colliding_Winds_Still_1.jpg", "media_type": "Image", "alt_text": "Short narrated video.", "width": 1280, "height": 720, "pixels": 921600 } } ], "sources": [], "products": [], "newer_versions": [], "older_versions": [], "alternate_versions": [] }