This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals new secrets of star birth as recorded in a spectacular jet of gas the star has ejected.
[center] - Resembling the vertebrae of an imaginary space alien, this one-half light-year long jet of gas has burst out of a dark cloud of gas and dust which hides the newly forming star located in the lower left corner of the image.
[upper left] - An enlargement of a portion of the jet near the star shows the complicated interactions that take place when the ejected gas collides with the interstellar medium. The apparent changes in direction might be produced by wobbling of the star, as it feels the gravitational tug of an unseen companion star or instability mechanisms.
[lower right] - A massive clump of jet material collides with upstream gas and creates a bow-shaped shock wave, like a boat speeding across a lake. Through this process the jet sweeps out a cavity around the star and may thereby restrict how much material is available to fall onto the star as part of the gravitational accretion process.
The images used to make this picture were taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 on March 26 and 29, 1994. HH-47 lies about 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Vela. The star is forming in a dense gas cloud at the edge of the Gum Nebula.
Credits
J. Morse (STScI), and NASA;Co-investigators: B. Reipurth (European Southern Observ.), S. Heathcote (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observ.), P. Hartigan (Rice Univ.), J. Bally (Univ. of Colorado), R. Schwartz (Univ. of Missouri), J. Stone (Univ. of Maryland).
The insets show portions of the jet that were computer enhanced by A. Boden and D. Redding (JPL) and J. Mo and R. Hanisch (STScI).
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | HH-47 |
| R.A. Position | 08h 25m 44.8s |
| Dec. Position | -51° 3' 27.0" |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
