HH 34
Credit:ESA/Hubble & NASA
The artistic outburst of an extremely young star, in the earliest
phase of formation, is captured in this spectacular image from the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The colourful wisps, found in the lower
left of the image, are painted onto the sky by a young star cocooned in
the partially illuminated cloud of obscuring dust seen to the upper
right.
Pictured punching through the enshrouding dust is an
extremely hot, blue jet of gas released by the young star. As this jet
speeds through space, it collides with cooler surrounding material. The
result is the colourful object to the lower left, produced as the cooler
material is heated by the jet (opo9524a, potw1307a).
This wispy object is known as HH34 and it is an example of a Herbig–Haro (HH) object. It resides approximately 1400 light-years away near the Orion Nebula,
a large star formation region within the Milky Way. HH objects exist
for a cosmically brief time — typically thousands of years — with
changes seen in observations taken only a few years apart (heic1113).
Although
the jet extends the entire length between the infant star and HH34,
only a fraction of it appears visible. This part of the jet possesses an
intricate structure of knots and ripples, thought to be caused by the
different outbursts catching up and ramming into each other over time.
Source: ESA/Hubble - Space Telescope
