A new star system born 1,400 light-years from Earth is revealed in all its dynamic glory in a new photo from the Hubble Space Telescope.
The system is called IRAS 05491 + 0247 and is at the center of a particularly rare and magnificent cosmic interaction, known as the Herbig-Haro object. This particular Herbig-Haro object, called HH 111, is fed by a star in a binary system, which releases powerful astrophysical jets into the surrounding space.
Herbig-Haro objects are some of the most spectacular in the galaxy, but they require a specific set of circumstances. First, you need a star baby. These are formed from dense lumps of material in a molecular cloud that collapse under their own gravity and, as they rotate, begin to accumulate material from the cloud around them.
During this process, the star can release powerful plasma rays from its poles. Part of the accretion material that revolves around the star is believed to wrap along the magnetic field lines of the star, which accelerate the particles so that when they reach the poles, they are launched at speed. considerable in space as very narrow collimated rays.
The insane temperatures involved ionize this material and turn it into plasma.
For a Herbig-Haro object, these rays, which travel hundreds of kilometers per hour, sink strongly into the surrounding molecular cloud. Where these interactions occur, warm temperatures cause the material to glow brightly, but they also evolve rapidly, especially on a cosmic time scale, changing observably in a few years.
Jets emanating from HH 111. (ESA / Hubble and NASA, B. Nisini)
The HH 111 bipolar beam is created by one of the stars in a binary pair, located near a central tower of gas and dust that was the accretion material of the stars. From each pole, a ray extends 12 light-years from the star.
Interestingly, the binary companion of this star listens to airplanes, as it was discovered a few years ago. It appears oriented perpendicular to the first star, so that its smaller jets explode at right angles to the larger ones.
These objects are really bright at optical wavelengths, but the surrounding dust around them prevents much of this light from escaping. Instruments that can penetrate dust, for example, making images at infrared wavelengths, reveal details that we could not have seen otherwise. Secondary aircraft, discovered in 2000, were imagined in this way.
Objects of the stellar system. (ESA / NASA)
These 2000 images also revealed a third star, which appears to have been ejected from the child system, in an interaction of the kind that could help reveal why our Sun is alone and not on a track.
The new launch, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument, was imagined in a combination of optics and infrared, showing the bright rays shining through the thick dust of the molecular cloud.
You can download versions of the Hubble HH 111 image in wallpaper format from the Hubble website.