Hubble Snaps a Jet Set

Esahubble_potw2210a_1024

esahubble_potw2210a March 7th, 2022

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini

An energetic outburst from an infant star streaks across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This stellar tantrum — produced by an extremely young star in the earliest phase of formation — consists of an incandescent jet of gas travelling at supersonic speeds. As the jet collides with material surrounding the still-forming star, the shock heats this material and causes it to glow. The result is the colourfully wispy structures, which astronomers refer to as Herbig–Haro objects, billowing across the lower left of this image.  Herbig–Haro objects are seen to evolve and change significantly over just a few years. This particular object, called HH34, was previously captured by Hubble between 1994 and 2007, and again in glorious detail in 2015. HH34 resides approximately 1250 light-years from Earth in the Orion Nebula, a large region of star formation visible to the unaided eye. The Orion Nebula is one of the closest sites of widespread star formation to Earth, and as such has been pored over by astronomers in search of insights into how stars and planetary systems are born.  The data in this image are from a set of Hubble observations of four nearby bright jets with the Wide Field Camera 3 taken to help pave the way for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Webb — which will observe at predominantly infrared wavelengths — will be able to peer into the dusty envelopes surrounding still-forming protostars, revolutionising the study of jets from these young stars. Hubble’s high-resolution images of HH34 and other jets will help astronomers interpret future observations with Webb.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2210a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
HH 34
Esahubble_potw2210a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 5h 35m 30.5s
DEC = -6° 27’ 38.7”
Orientation
North is 18.0° CW
Field of View
1.9 x 2.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Orion

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Fe II continuum) 1.7 µm
Yellow Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Fe II) 1.6 µm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Paschen Beta continuum) 1.3 µm
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Fe II) 1.3 µm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Yellow
Cyan
Purple
Esahubble_potw2210a_1280
×
ID
potw2210a
Subject Category
Subject Name
, HH 34
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini
Release Date
2022-03-07T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2210a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Orange, Yellow, Cyan, Purple
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Fe II continuum, Fe II, Paschen Beta continuum, Fe II
Central Wavelength
1670, 1640, 1300, 1260
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
83.87690174445015, -6.460755619994106
Reference Dimension
882.0, 1068.0
Reference Pixel
441.0, 534.0
Scale
-3.564705820695986e-05, 3.564705820695986e-05
Rotation
-17.959999999999926
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw2210a
Metadata Date
2022-02-14T19:44:58+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In