Hubble captures a tempestuous pair of Herbig-Haro objects

By Georgina Torbet October 23, 2022

This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows Herbig-Haro objects, a pair or objects captured by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 instrument. The camera took the image using 11 different filters spread across the visible light, infrared, and ultraviolet wavelengths, allowing researchers to observe different features.

This pair of Herbig-Haro objects is located 1,250 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, and the objects are formed from the dramatic outbursts of newly born stars. They were the first Herbig-Haro objects to be recognized, leading to the names HH 1 and HH 2. Newly born stars only develop into Herbig-Haro objects under certain circumstances: The stars must give off jets of ionized gas which is extremely hot and charged. These jets hit nearby clouds of dust and gas, creating the glowing forms in the collision.

Related Videos

The lives of newborn stars are tempestuous, as this image of the Herbig-Haro objects HH 1 and HH 2 from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts. Both objects are in the constellation Orion and lie around 1,250 light-years from Earth. HH 1 is the luminous cloud above the bright star in the upper right of this image, and HH 2 is the cloud in the bottom left. — The lives of newborn stars are tempestuous, as this image of the Herbig-Haro objects HH 1 and HH 2 from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts. Both objects are in the constellation Orion and lie around 1,250 light-years from Earth. HH 1 is the luminous cloud above the bright star in the upper right of this image, and HH 2 is the cloud in the bottom left. ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Reipurth, B. Nisini

“While both Herbig-Haro objects are visible, the young star system responsible for their creation is lurking out of sight, swaddled in the thick clouds of dust at the center of this image,” Hubble scientists wrote. “However, an outflow of gas from one of these stars is streaming out from the central dark cloud and is visible as a bright jet. Astronomers once thought the bright star between that jet and the HH 1 cloud was the source of these jets, but it is an unrelated double star that formed nearby.”

Hubble has imaged similar Herbig-Haro objects before, such as when it captured objects HH 46 and HH 47 in the constellation of Vela or when it observed the object HH 34 in the Orion nebula, which is the site of vigorous star formation. One of Hubble’s most stunning and unusual images is of object HH 505, which is in a particularly colourful and attractive nebula that has been shaped and sculpted by the forces of the jets given off by young stars.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Space

An enormous galaxy cluster warps spacetime in this Hubble image

A massive galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus dominates the centre of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This image is populated with a serene collection of elliptical and spiral galaxies, but galaxies surrounding the central cluster — which is named SPT-CL J0019-2026 — appear stretched into bright arcs, as if distorted by a gargantuan magnifying glass. This cosmic contortion is called gravitational lensing, and it occurs when a massive object like a galaxy cluster has a sufficiently powerful gravitational field to distort and magnify the light from background objects.

Every week, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope share an image from this beloved piece of space technology, and this week's image shows a vital astronomical phenomenon in action. While space telescopes can observe very far-off objects if they are bright enough, there is still a lot of the universe that is too far away to observe -- which is why researchers make use of a natural occurrence called gravitational lensing.

Gravitational lensing happens when an object like a galaxy or galaxy cluster has so much mass that it noticeably warps spacetime. Everything with mass bends spacetime somewhat, but usually this effect is so small as to be effectively invisible. But when the object is something with as much mass as a large galaxy or even a collection of galaxies, then this warping can be significant enough for us to observe it.

Space

Three galaxies are in the process of merging in this Hubble image

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely near this scene, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background.

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a dramatic collision of three different galaxies. The trio, located in the Boötes constellation, are in the process of merging and will eventually form one single large galaxy.

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely near this scene, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun

Space

Hubble is investigating mysterious ‘spokes’ in Saturn’s rings

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the appearance of two smudgy spokes in the B ring, on the left in the image.

Saturn is famous for its beautiful rings, but these rings have a strange feature: "spokes" which appear intermittently. These spots in the rings can be light or dark and can look like blobs or like lines stretching radially outward from the planet, and they appear in a regular cycle related to the planet's equinox. Now, the Hubble Space Telescope has the opportunity to study these oddities of the rings in more detail and researchers hope they can learn more about what causes these features.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has observation time devoted to Saturn each year, thanks to the Outer Planet Atmospheres Legacy (OPAL) program, and the dynamic gas giant planet always shows us something new. This latest image heralds the start of Saturn's "spoke season" with the appearance of two smudgy spokes in the B ring, on the left in the image. SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, Amy Simon (NASA-GSFC) IMAGE PROCESSING: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)