(click on image to enlarge)
From NASA/ESA, August 30, 2021:
This striking image features a relatively rare celestial
phenomenon known as a Herbig–Haro object. This particular Herbig–Haro
object is named HH111, and was imaged by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3
(WFC3). These spectacular objects are formed under very specific
circumstances. Newly formed stars are often very active, and in some
cases they expel very narrow jets of rapidly moving ionised gas — gas
that is so hot that its molecules and atoms have lost their electrons,
making the gas highly charged. The streams of ionised gas then collide
with the clouds of gas and dust surrounding newly-formed stars at speeds
of hundreds of kilometres per second. It is these energetic collisions
that create Herbig–Haro objects such as HH111.
WFC3 takes images at optical and infrared wavelengths,
which means that it observes objects at a wavelength range similar to
the range that human eyes are sensitive to (optical) and a range of wavelengths that are slightly too long to be detected by human eyes (infrared).
Herbig–Haro objects actually release a lot of light at optical
wavelengths, but they are difficult to observe because their surrounding
dust and gas absorb much of the visible light. Therefore, the WFC3’s
ability to observe at infrared wavelengths — where observations are not
as affected by gas and dust— is crucial to observing Herbo–Haro objects
successfully.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, B. Nisini
