Starship Asterisk*

Herbig-Haro 24

Explanation: This might look like a double-bladed lightsaber, but these two cosmic jets actually beam outward from a newborn star in a galaxy near you. Constructed from Hubble Space Telescope image data, the stunning scene spans about half a light-year across Herbig-Haro 24 (HH 24), some 1,300 light-years or 400 parsecs away in the stellar nurseries of the Orion B molecular cloud complex. Hidden from direct view, HH 24's central protostar is surrounded by cold dust and gas flattened into a rotating accretion disk. As material from the disk falls toward the young stellar object it heats up. Opposing jets are blasted out along the system's rotation axis. Cutting through the region's interstellar matter, the narrow, energetic jets produce a series of glowing shock fronts along their path.

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The good news is, the jet missed the whale in the lower right.

How much thrust would those jets produce? If they didn't balance would the protostar go careering off out of the dust cloud?
John

JohnD wrote:How much thrust would those jets produce? If they didn't balance would the protostar go careering off out of the dust cloud?
John

Very nice question!

WOW...so cool!!!!!!!!!!

A...um....Harrowing place....perhaps...but a HAPPY BIRTH!!!!! And Who Knows....in a few Billion Years...the pitter patter of little microbes????

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Would the star have ignited necessarily yet???

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Is this an actual image or artist rendition?

Stardaddyed3 wrote:Is this an actual image or artist rendition?

Actual image. Do note that some weirdness with the colors is occurring because the cyan channel and the orange channel do not match up entirely due to the very fast movement of the jet. The two datasets used to create the color composite were not captured at the same time. Usually, this doesn't matter, but these jets are moving really fast. Also keep in mind this is not an RGB image.

JohnD wrote:
How much thrust would those jets produce?

If they didn't balance would the protostar go careering off out of the dust cloud?

The jet velocity is only about 0.1% the speed of light so this is more like directed solar wind than supernova explosion.

A goodly fraction of a solar mass would have to be ejected asymmetrically in order for the motion to be noticed at all.

Thank you, Art!
Disappointed though. Thought we had discovered Ringworld.
John

Here is a 3D zoom in to HH24

I noticed a discrepancy concerning events that contradict the absolute speed of light in a vacuum. In the link saying "opposing jets are blasting out" we find that on February 2014, Herbig-Haro 24 was some 1,500 light-years away. In today's APOD we learn that H-H 24 is 1,300 light-years away. That means in just under 2 years, H-H 24 has traveled almost 200 light-years closer to Earth! Shouldn't this take 200 years even if H-H 24 were traveling at the speed of light? My Gawd, at this rate Herbig-Hero 24 will arrive at Earth in about 13 years!

Wait! That's not a whale, bottom right. It's Douglas Adams' Salmon of Doubt!

De58te wrote:I noticed a discrepancy concerning events that contradict the absolute speed of light in a vacuum. In the link saying "opposing jets are blasting out" we find that on February 2014, Herbig-Haro 24 was some 1,500 light-years away. In today's APOD we learn that H-H 24 is 1,300 light-years away. That means in just under 2 years, H-H 24 has traveled almost 200 light-years closer to Earth! Shouldn't this take 200 years even if H-H 24 were traveling at the speed of light? My Gawd, at this rate Herbig-Hero 24 will arrive at Earth in about 13 years!

Indeed, there is a conspiracy among governments and the world's top scientists to hide the fact that the Earth will be destroyed in 13 years. Somebody's head is going to roll for allowing this updated distance information to get published!

This is an otherworldy and mysterious scene, almost looks like something out of Doctor Who!!
This area is part of the M78 complex, which has many other Herbig Haro objects associated with it.
Also may the Force be with everyone!

It looks like there are two wider jets perpendicular to the jets under discussion. What's the explanation for these?

Ted11 wrote:It looks like there are two wider jets perpendicular to the jets under discussion. What's the explanation for these?

Within these dense clouds of material, more than one star is born at around the same time. You can several cavities being carved out by stars in different positions. The large one in the upper left is a roughly cylindrical cavity with a jet at its center axis pointing back to yet another young stellar object forming alongside the two "light saber" jets. To the lower right is a smaller cavity punched out by yet another young stellar object.

Nature does a pretty good job of drawing straight lines!

I'm usually curious why things happen but after glancing at this, I know why I became a pharmacist. Anyone up to give a Readers Digest version? I have enjoyed the idea of today's APOD but what is in its guts may essentially be indigestible. Relativistic jet material starts on page 44 though I suspect it's all pretty relevant. I hope.

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:I'm usually curious why things happen but after glancing at this, I know why I became a pharmacist. Anyone up to give a Readers Digest version? I have enjoyed the idea of today's APOD but what is in its guts may essentially be indigestible. Relativistic jet material starts on page 44 though I suspect it's all pretty relevant. I hope.

My Reader's Digest version is: The words are too small and there's way too many of them. I suspect that neufer's indigestible roughage is a lot easier to take, for most people.
That's why you became a Pharmacist, Ron? I would have thought it was because you liked to try and decode Doctors handwriting.

Beyond wrote:

Ron-Astro Pharmacist wrote:I'm usually curious why things happen but after glancing at this, I know why I became a pharmacist. Anyone up to give a Readers Digest version? I have enjoyed the idea of today's APOD but what is in its guts may essentially be indigestible. Relativistic jet material starts on page 44 though I suspect it's all pretty relevant. I hope.

My Reader's Digest version is: The words are too small and there's way too many of them. I suspect that neufer's indigestible roughage is a lot easier to take, for most people.
That's why you became a Pharmacist, Ron? I would have thought it was because you liked to try and decode Doctors handwriting.

When you dispense Xanax for Zantac it doesn't improve your anxiety or your digestion but at least the patient doesn't care that his belly hurts. I'm speaking only hypothetically!! Electronic medical records will help with that issue – mostly. Not trying to scare anyone but – know your medications!!

It is so wonderful to get away from politics and look out at the vast Universe, indifferent to our petty squabbles!

geckzilla wrote:

Stardaddyed3 wrote:Is this an actual image or artist rendition?

Actual image. Do note that some weirdness with the colors is occurring because the cyan channel and the orange channel do not match up entirely due to the very fast movement of the jet. The two datasets used to create the color composite were not captured at the same time. Usually, this doesn't matter, but these jets are moving really fast. Also keep in mind this is not an RGB image.

Actual image .. but not an actual photograph.
"Constructed from Hubble Space Telescope image data, the stunning scene ..." As you said Geck, constructed from two sets of data.

Are the jets spinning? If so are they spinning in the same or opposite directions?