Though hidden behind a veil of dust, a young protostar spews bright jets of material visible in the infrared range of the light spectrum.

Astronomers believe the protostar (lower right), located in the Herbig-Haro 211 star system some 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, is less than 1,000 years old, but still growing as it accumulates matter from a surrounding disk of gas and dust. While most of the matter will coalesce into a low-mass star similar to the Sun, some must be ejected to carry away excess angular momentum, resulting in dual jets that shoot outward in opposite directions.

The jets streaming from the protostar shown here were detected by astronomers using the Submillimeter Array atop Mauna Kea, Hawaii. They were predicted by a computer model of jet formation developed by astronomer Hsien Shang of the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and her colleagues. The model, which calculates temperatures, densities and brightness of stellar jets, may help astronomers understand how jets form and how they may influence star and planet formation.

This infrared image was taken using the array’s FLAMINGOS camera, which was designed and constructed at the University of Florida.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: A.A. Muench-Nasrallah, CfA