Just visible to a keenly sighted naked-eye observer, the Omega Nebula<\/a> (also known as the Swan or the Lobster Nebula) may lack a distinct form, but it is substantial.<\/p>\n Lying between 5,000 and 6,000 lightyears away, it contains more gas \u2013 fuel for star formation \u2013 than the Orion Nebula<\/a>, making it one of the best laboratories we have for understanding how stars form.<\/p>\n More from Chris Lintott:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n We look to M17 to help us understand the formation of the most massive stars<\/a>, those with more than eight times the mass of the Sun.<\/p>\n A cluster of these, formed within the last few million years, sits at the heart of the nebula<\/a> and a team of astronomers using the the marvellous GRAVITY instrument attached to the Very Large Telescope have taken a closer look at them.<\/p>\n They used GRAVITY to get extremely high-resolution images of the nebula\u2019s core, with the aim of identifying any companions to the massive stars that live there.<\/p>\n The question of whether the largest stars have companions, and what they\u2019re like if they do exist, is thought to be important in trying to understand the process by which such massive stars form.<\/p>\n All star formation<\/a> is a race, between the processes by which material is accreted onto the forming protostar and those that will power the nuclear fusion at the star\u2019s core.<\/p>\n Once the latter get going, powerful stellar winds will prevent further accretion and growth, cutting off star formation, so any massive star needs to form quickly.<\/p>\n Theories of massive star formation range from the merging of smaller protostars, to interactions in dense clusters of new stars, to extreme examples of the processes that drive the formation of normal stars.<\/p>\n Each of these possibilities will have left its mark on the population of binary stars<\/a> in M17.<\/p>\n![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2020\/07\/7_AnasAlbounni_OmegaNebula-ded07c1.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C450"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2019\/02\/M17_160806_2400-30ba373.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/25\/2022\/04\/gravity-vlt-abb5675.jpeg?quality=90&resize=620%2C349"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>