The Cosmos with Westerlund 2

The massive star cluster Westerlund 2, seen here in a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope, is filled with young stars surrounded by dense clouds of interstellar dust that’s in the process of forming baby planets. But the stars in the center of the cluster don’t have the same planet-building supplies as their neighbors near the cluster’s outskirts, Hubble observations have revealed. The absence of dust in the center of Westerlund 2 is caused by “blistering ultraviolet radiation and hurricane-like stellar winds” coming from the biggest and brightest stars of the cluster, which congregate in the cluster’s core, eroding and blasting away all the dust, Hubble officials said in a statement.

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