NEWBORN stars emit jets of material as gravitation pulls gas and dust inwards from a rotating disc. This jet, called HH-47, is half a light year (about 5 trillion kilometres) long and 1500 light years away. It comes from a young star hidden inside a dust cloud to the left.
Images just released from the Hubble Space Telescope, which show stellar jets in unprecedented detail, will help astronomers 鈥渃reate detailed models of star birth and gain a much better understanding of the formation of our Sun and planets鈥�, says Chris Burrows of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. The high-resolution Hubble images show that the jets originate at or near the star, rather than near the disc of gas rotating around it. They also show that clumps observed earlier are due to 鈥渟puttering of the central engine鈥� that emits the jet, says Jeff Hester of Arizona State University
Bends in the HH-47 jet appear to be caused by wobbling of the central star. However, the tight focusing of the jets remains a mystery. Theorists will need new models to explain the Hubble data, while observers will watch for changes in the rapidly evolving jets over the coming decade.
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