Two young stars shine brightly in the dusty depths of the Orion Nebula, a new image from the Hubble Space Telescope has shown.
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The young stars discovered by Hubble are located about 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Orion Nebula, also known as protostars. The Orion Nebula is the closest star-forming region to Earth and is home to hundreds of newborn stars.
The recent Hubble Space Telescope captures two of these protostars, called HOPS 150 and HOPS 153 , which take their names from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey, conducted with the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel, which observes the skies in infrared light, was launched in May 2009 and ended its mission four years later.
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HOPS 150 has a bright golden-red glow in the upper right corner of the image, while HOPS 153 is on the left side of the image and is surrounded by a narrow, colorful jet. There are also a few foreground stars shining brightly in front of the nebula, according to an ESA statement accompanying the new image on Jan. 13.
HOPS 150 actually contains two young stars, creating what is known as a binary system. The two stars orbit each other and each has a small, dusty disk of material from which they feed to fuel their continued growth.
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On the other side is a bright, colorful stellar jet emanating from HOPS 153, which is outside the frame of the image. This outflow of material is a product of the star's evolution. The pink and blue clouds consist of high-velocity material ejected from the young star as it continues to form and feed on its surrounding accretion disk.
Source: space.com
