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Star Birth

Baby Star Jet

As each slider bar is manipulated, the view transitions from visible light to infrared light. In visible light: One side of the protostellar jet bursts out of the dust cloud. In infrared light: Adding infrared light lets us see the inner workings of the baby star's jet. As each slider bar is manipulated, the view transitions from visible light to infrared light. In visible light: One side of the protostellar jet bursts out of the dust cloud. In infrared light: Adding infrared light lets us see the inner workings of the baby star's jet.
Visible: Default View
Infrared:
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Baby Star Jet

As baby stars begin to grow and draw in material from the surrounding disk of gas, they form jets of material that blast through their surrounding cloud. While such jets may have some appearance in visible light, an infrared view can reveal both sides of the jet along with the source star deep within the cloud, as in this image of the protostar BHR71.
Visible: One side of the protostellar jet bursts out of the dust cloud.
Infrared: Adding infrared light lets us see the inner workings of the baby star's jet.
CREDITS: Visible: VLT/J. Alves (ESO), E. Tolstoy (Groningen), R. Fosbury (ST-ECF) & R. Hook (ST-ECF). Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Bourke (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA) & c2d Legacy Team.