File:Full-field Optical Image of W3 (2006-w3-more-2).tiff

Size of this JPG preview of this TIF file: 437 × 600 pixels. Other resolutions: 175 × 240 pixels | 350 × 480 pixels | 560 × 768 pixels | 746 × 1,024 pixels | 1,632 × 2,239 pixels.

Original file (1,632 × 2,239 pixels, file size: 22.46 MB, MIME type: image/tiff)

This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. Information from its description page there is shown below.
Commons is a freely licensed media file repository. You can help.

Summary

Description	English: Full-field Optical Image of W3 W3 is a region where many massive stars are forming in a string of stellar clusters, located about 6,000 light years from Earth in the Perseus arm of the Milky Way galaxy. W3 is part of a vast molecular cloud complex that also contains the W4 superbubble (not seen in this image). Scientists believe that the incredible amount of star formation in W3 has possibly been influenced by neighboring W4, an inflating bubble of gas over 100 light years across. W4 may directly trigger the birth of W3's massive stellar clusters as it expands and sweeps up molecular gas into a high-density layer at its edge, within which stars can form. Another possible scenario is that W4's expansion has caused a domino effect of star formation, forming the cluster IC 1795 which in turn triggered formation of the young, massive clusters in W3. Scale: Image is 31 arcmin across
Date	18 December 2006 (upload date)
Source	Full-field Optical Image of W3
Author	(Credit: Pal Obs. DSS)
Other versions	JPG version

This media is a product of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory
Credit and attribution belongs to the mission team, if not already specified in the "author" row

Licensing

	This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA. NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted". (See Template:PD-USGov, NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy.)
	Warnings: Use of NASA logos, insignia and emblems is restricted per U.S. law 14 CFR 1221. The NASA website hosts a large number of images from the Soviet/Russian space agency, and other non-American space agencies. These are not necessarily in the public domain. Materials based on Hubble Space Telescope data may be copyrighted if they are not explicitly produced by the STScI.[1] See also {{PD-Hubble}} and {{Cc-Hubble}}. The SOHO (ESA & NASA) joint project implies that all materials created by its probe are copyrighted and require permission for commercial non-educational use. [2] Images featured on the Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) web site may be copyrighted. [3] The National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC) site has been known to host copyrighted content. Its photo gallery FAQ states that all of the images in the photo gallery are in the public domain "Unless otherwise noted."

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

	Date/Time	Thumbnail	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	00:24, 5 April 2025		1,632 × 2,239 (22.46 MB)	OptimusPrimeBot	#Spacemedia - Upload of https://chandra.si.edu/photo/2006/w3/w3_opt.tif via Commons:Spacemedia

File usage

The following 2 pages use this file:

Metadata

This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it.

If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

Image title	In this composite image of one of the many star-forming complexes of W3, the Chandra data are shown in green and blue (lower and higher-energy X-rays, respectively) and optical emission is in red. The bright, point-like X-ray sources represent an extensive population of several hundred young stars, many of which were not found in earlier studies. Because its X-ray sources are all at the same distance, yet span a range of masses, ages, and other properties, W3 is an ideal laboratory for understanding recent and ongoing star formation in one of the Milky Way's spiral arms.
Width	1,632 px
Height	2,239 px
Bits per component	16 16 16
Compression scheme	LZW
Pixel composition	RGB
Orientation	Normal
Number of components	3
Number of rows per strip	26
Horizontal resolution	300 dpi
Vertical resolution	300 dpi
Data arrangement	chunky format
Software used	Adobe Photoshop CS2 Macintosh
File change date and time	06:59, 15 August 2006
Exif version	2.21
Color space	Uncalibrated

File:Full-field Optical Image of W3 (2006-w3-more-2).tiff

Summary

Licensing

Captions

Items portrayed in this file

depicts

copyright status

public domain

media type

image/tiff

height

2,239 pixel

width

1,632 pixel

data size

23,546,080 byte

checksum

4e425c86276eaa11217090871f79e1e1e52af15e

inception

18 December 2006

source of file

file available on the internet

pHash checksum

60rzdlsmiia30x0p163cl4kpsy6qmzalh4xq31s9sj0tsx4uc1

File history

File usage

Metadata