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The first science results from ESA's Herschel Space Observatory include an image of the birth of an 'impossible' star that is set to challenge currently-held ideas of star formation. Herschel’s observation of a cloud of gas and dust, - called RCW120 - has revealed an embryonic star which looks set to turn into one of the biggest and brightest stars in our Galaxy within the next few hundred thousand years. The very young star already weighs in at around ten times the mass of the Sun, and can continue to grow by feeding on the surrounding cloud, which still contains about 200 times as much material as the star. Current theories suggest that the fierce light emitted by such large stars should blast away their birth clouds before they grow any larger than around ten times the mass of the Sun. Despite this, many of these ‘impossible’ stars are already known, some up to 150 times the mass of the Sun.

Dr Toby Moore, of Liverpool John Moores University, said “the complete results from the HiGal survey will revolutionise our understanding of the physical process of star formation. It will give us the first clear picture of the development of clouds of gas and dust into the familiar bright stars of the night sky.”

In yet another exciting announcement, Herschel has also detected a new, electrically charged water vapour in the birth clouds surrounding young stars. We are used to solid ice, liquid water, and gaseous steam, but this new form of water doesn’t occur naturally on Earth. Water vapour is already known to exist in stellar nurseries, but it was not known that the intense ultraviolet light from hot young stars could cause this vapour to become electrically charged.

“These are still early days for Herschel and this is just the beginning of all the new science that we will get from this mission in the years to come,” says Göran Pilbratt, ESA Herschel Project Scientist.

To read the full story, visit the Hershel website.

To brush up on your knowledge of star formation, helpful resources are available on the National STEM Centre’s elibrary.