[PHOTO] Cosmic Lightsaber? Protostar Explodes With Powerful Jets

Dec 18, 2015 07:24 AM EST

The two lightsaber-like streams crossing the image are jets of energised gas, ejected from the poles of a young star. If the jets collide with the surrounding gas and dust they can clear vast spaces, and create curved shock waves, seen as knotted clumps c

(Photo : ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Padgett (GSFC), T. Megeath (University of Toledo), and B. Reipurth (University of Hawaii)) The two lightsaber-like streams crossing the image are jets of energised gas, ejected from the poles of a young star. If the jets collide with the surrounding gas and dust they can clear vast spaces, and create curved shock waves, seen as knotted clumps called Herbig-Haro objects.

A cosmic "lightsaber" was seen piercing through dark clouds of dust and that could be mistaken as a scene from the new Star Wars movie, only this time, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this stunning new image.

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These two beams of light are produced from fallout material from a newly born star where they shoot outwards in opposite directions at supersonic speeds, creating two jets similar to the lightsaber wielded by Darth Maul.

This cosmic collapse of heavy clouds and dust around gas falls inward, where dust and gas are spiralling around a protostar that will eventually grow into a colossal size from fusion. Other cases show how this star material can stream out of young stars which suddenly causes an eruption of fiery jets, bursting out on its stellar poles.

These powerful jets now collide and combine with the cosmic material surrounding it, that create shock waves from their ends. These will then give birth to tangled and knotted star material in bunches known as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, according to the European Space Agency.

This "cosmic lightsaber" or rather, this HH object in this new Hubble image that surrounds this young star is called HH24. ESA scientists say that these supersonic shockwaves heat up the surrounding gas reaching up to thousands of degrees Fahrenheit.

Prior research also reveals how these double jets that are emitted from this cosmic lightsaber are apparently just short bursts, spanning less than a quarter of a light year or 1.34 trilion miles long from each end. These jets also share a much closer interaction with its surrounding region in space as opposed to similar cosmic objects suggesting that the age of these jets are only about a few thousand years old which is relatively new.

This object is apparently located within the Milky Way galaxy, bursting into life some 1,350 light years away from the Orion constellation. ESA scientists also say that there are also smaller jets that are so faint in this image, emanating from more newborn stars where this makes it the densest concentration of HH jets in a small region in space.

Tagscosmic lightsaber, NASA hubble space telescope, protostar explosion jets, newborn star hubble, NASA, ESA, HH objects, HH 24