Hubble Observes Energetic Outburst from Distant Protostar

NASA has released an a beautiful new photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of an Herbig-Haro object called HH 34.

This Hubble image shows HH 34, an Herbig-Haro object located roughly 1,370 light-years away in the constellation of Orion. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / B. Nisini.

HH 34 is an Herbig-Haro object located approximately 1,370 light-years away in the constellation of Orion.

“Herbig-Haro objects are seen to evolve and change significantly over just a few years,” Hubble astronomers said.

“This particular object, called HH 34, was previously captured by Hubble between 1994 and 2007, and again in glorious detail in 2015.”

“It is produced by an extremely young star in the earliest phase of formation,” they added.

“It consists of an incandescent jet of gas traveling at supersonic speeds.”

“As the jet collides with material surrounding the still-forming star, the shock heats this material and causes it to glow.”

“The result is the colorfully wispy structures billowing across the lower left of the Hubble image.”

Also known as Haro 4-369 or PACH 283, HH 34 resides in the Orion Nebula, a large region of star formation visible to the unaided eye.

“The Orion Nebula is one of the closest sites of widespread star formation to Earth, and as such has been pored over by astronomers in search of insights into how stars and planetary systems are born,” the researchers said.

The color image of HH 34 was made from separate exposures taken in the infrared region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) instrument.

It combines observations gathered in four different filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.

“The data in this image are from a set of Hubble observations of four nearby bright jets taken with WFC3 to help pave the way for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope,” the scientists said.

“Webb — which will observe at predominantly infrared wavelengths — will be able to peer into the dusty envelopes surrounding still-forming protostars, revolutionizing the study of jets from these young stars.”

“Hubble’s high-resolution images of HH 34 and other jets will help us interpret future observations with Webb.”