Baby Star’s Birth Captured By Giant Radio Telescope
A baby star’s birth was captured on film by a giant radio telescope in Chile. The ALMA radio telescope took pictures of the display, which was about 1,400 light-years from Earth.
The ALMA radio telescope is a joint project between North America, Europe, and Asia. It is incredibly sensitive, allowing the telescope to pick up gorgeous pictures of the star’s birth.
The star lit up an interstellar cloud with jets of gas that were unleashed at almost 84,477 mph, reports Space News The material crashed into surrounding gas, causing it to glow brightly.
European Southern Observatory officials used the new views of the star to create a video tutorial on how stars are born. The new images show that material streaks from the baby star at about 25 miles per second — about four times faster than any previous observation.
The discovery could help scientists better understand the complex process of a star’s birth. The star in question is Herbig-Haro 46/47. The photos of the baby star show two streaks of material moving away from the star, one of which has never been seen before.
The Toronto Star notes that the jets are also more energetic than previously thought. One of the jets appeared in pink and purple, seemingly headed for Earth. The other was orange and green and seemed to be streaming away from our planet.
A study on the new photos appeared in the Astrophysical Journal on August 20. In it, study co-author Diego Mardones explained. “This system is similar to most isolated low mass stars during their formation and birth.” He went on to say, “But it is also unusual because the outflow impacts the cloud directly on one side of the young star and escapes out of the cloud on the other.”
It took five hours for ALMA’s instruments to take the photos showing the second jet. Earlier photos taken from other telescopes weren’t able to do so. What do you think of the baby star’s birth photo?
[Image via ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/H. Arce)]
