The Hubble Space Telescope has captured yet another phenomenon in space. The observatory has spotted the smoking gun of a newborn star about 1,000 light-years from Earth.
Herbig-Haro Objects
In a new image posted on the NASA website, Hubble captured strange celestial formations known as Herbig-Haro objects, bright patches of gas that reside near newborn stars. Five of these objects can be seen in blue at the top center of the image near the host star SVS 13.
The proximity between SVS 13 and one of these objects called HH7 is currently about 20,000 times the distance from Earth to the sun.
These objects jet away from the stars at speeds reaching up to 150,000 miles per hour and disappear in just a few tens of thousands of years. This may seem to be a long time, but in cosmic terms, the things disappear relatively quickly.
"Herbig-Haro objects are formed when jets of ionized gas ejected by a young star collide with nearby clouds of gas and dust at high speeds," the European Space Agency said. "The Herbig-Haro objects visible in this image are no exception to this, and were formed when the jets from the newborn star SVS 13 collided with the surrounding clouds. These collisions created the five brilliant clumps of light."
Stars And Hubble Telescope
Studying the birth, life and death of stars helps astronomers learn more about stellar evolution and how galaxies evolve. Stars do not just light up the sky. They also produce raw materials that make life possible. If extraterrestrial life does exist, it is likely in a world orbiting a star.
The Hubble telescope has been instrumental in making important discoveries about these objects.
Last year, astronomers detected magnetic fields in the "Pillars Of Creation" showing how stars can form from the collapse of clumps of gases slowed down by magnetic fields. The Pillars of Creature is one of the most popular images taken by Hubble.
