Baby Blowing Bluish Bubbles
HH 46/47, an altogether unsexy and unimaginative name for a star, reveals a nonetheless amazing display as viewed by NASA’s JPL’s Spitzer telescope. With the ability to see into the infrared, cutting through cosmic dust is a breeze for the Spitzer. Which makes interpreting this seemingly violent picture a breeze. The bright white spot in the center is HH 46/47, a very young star in the midst of spewing out jets of gas at extraordinary speeds. As these jets ram into the stellar dust, hydrogen is warmed (the parts in blue), and iron gets superheated (the bright red spots at the end of both “bubbles”).
Their scientists believe that HH 46/47 may be in the midst of developing a wind powerful enough to halt its growing via gravitational disk accretion. Personally, I just like the pic.
Primary Source + Larger Picture: JPL