Massive stars and their fierce winds near the neck of the Swan

ESA's Herschel Space Observatory has captured a new, stunning image of Cygnus X, one of the richest star-forming regions in our cosmic neighbourhood. The image reveals in unprecedented detail the intricate network of filaments, pillars and bubbles present in the region. These structures have been carved by the powerful effects of the many young, massive stars being born in this stellar nursery.

The bubble in the lower right is a shell of material likely ejected by the Luminous Blue Variable G79.29+0.46, a supergiant star located at its centre, invisible at the wavelengths probed by Herschel. This and the following images are partial views of the total image of Cygnus X captured by Herschel, visible in annotated form at the end of the series.

Cygnus-X, a complex and turbulent star-nursery

Chaotic networks of dust and gas signpost the next generations of massive stars in this stunning new image of the Cygnus-X star-nursery captured by ESA’s Herschel space observatory.

The image combines data acquired with the PACS instrument at 70 micron (corresponding to the blue channel) and 160 micron (corresponding to the green channel) and with the SPIRE instrument at 250 micron (corresponding to the red channel). The observations were made on 24 May 2010 and 18 December 2010. North is to the lower-right and east to the upper-right. Credit: ESA/PACS/SPIRE/Martin Hennemann & Frédérique Motte, Laboratoire AIM Paris-Saclay, CEA/Irfu – CNRS/INSU – Univ. Paris Diderot, France