A stellar sneezing fit

Esahubble_potw1350a_1024

esahubble_potw1350a December 16th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine

Look at the bright star in the middle of this image. Achoo! It has just sneezed. This sight will only last for a few thousand years a blink of an eye in the young star's life. If you could carry on watching for a few years you would realise it's not just one sneeze, but a sneezing fit. This young star is firing off salvos of super-hot, super-fast gas Achoo! Achoo! before it finally exhausts itself. These bursts of gas have shaped the turbulent surroundings, creating structures known as Herbig-Haro objects. These objects are formed from the star's energetic "sneezes". These salvos can contain as much mass as our home planet, and cannon into nearby clouds of gas at hundreds of kilometres per second. Shock waves form, such as the U-shape below this star. Unlike most other astronomical phenomena, as the waves crash outwards, they can be seen moving across human timescales. Soon, this star will stop sneezing, and grow up to be a star like the Sun. This region is actually home to several interesting objects. The star at the centre of the frame is a variable star named V633 Cassiopeiae, with Herbig-Haro objects HH 161 and HH 164 forming parts of the horseshoe-shaped loop emanating from it. The slightly shrouded star just to the left is known as V376 Cassiopeiae, another variable star that has succumbed to its neighbour's infectious sneezing fits; this star is also sneezing, creating yet another Herbig-Haro object HH 162. Both stars are very young and are still surrounded by dusty material left over from their formation, which spans the gap between the two A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Gilles Chapdelaine. For more information about these objects, see Hubblecast 49: Supersonic jets from newborn stars.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1350a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
HH 164
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Young Stellar Object
Star > Circumstellar Material > Outflow
Esahubble_potw1350a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 0h 11m 27.0s
DEC = 58° 49’ 27.2”
Orientation
North is 115.7° CCW
Field of View
1.8 x 1.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Cassiopeia

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (WFPC2) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Esahubble_potw1350a_1280
×
ID
potw1350a
Subject Category
B.3.1.2   B.3.7.3  
Subject Name
HH 164
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine
Release Date
2013-12-16T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1350a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Infrared, Optical
Bandpass
I, V
Central Wavelength
814, 606
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
2.86229519516, 58.8242109204
Reference Dimension
1101.0, 580.0
Reference Pixel
550.0, 290.0
Scale
-2.77692240283e-05, 2.77692240283e-05
Rotation
115.70000000000009
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1350a
Metadata Date
2013-08-09T13:22:04+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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