Space Tornado! Cosmic Front Packs a Punch
The Herbig-Haro object 49/50 looks like a tornado in space.
Image source: NASA / Spitzer / CfA
Image source: NASA / Spitzer / CfA
Ker Than writes on Space.com:
High-energy particles spewing out of a young star in a nearby stellar nursery are plowing through interstellar clouds and creating a giant spiral structure in space that looks like a glowing, rainbow-colored tornado, scientists said today.
The star spewing the particle jet lies 480 light-years away in a star-forming region known as Chamaeleon I.
In a photograph taken with NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope, that star is actually not visible because it is located off the upper edge of the image.
The luminous tornado-shaped structure is known as a Herbig-Haro object and estimated to be about 0.3 light years, or nearly 2 trillion miles, long and shows up in the infrared.
posted by Fergie @ 1/12/2006 07:55:00 AM
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