SUNSET: 
0
Photographer:
Daniel Stern
Location of Photo:
Rio Hurtado, Chile
Date/Time of photo:
July 2024
Equipment:
CDK-17
Description:
IC 2631, also known as the Chamaeleon Cloud, is a bright reflection nebula in the southern constellation of Chamaeleon. The nebula is illuminated by a very young star at the center of the blue field. It is about 630 light years away. That star is a T Tauri star and as it matures it will lose mass and shrink to a more modest size where it will be for billions of years. As a T Tauri it has not yet started to fuse hydrogen into helium in its core, like more mature main sequence stars. In its current mode it is generating heat from contraction and will remain in this stage for about 100 million years.
