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A research team has uncovered the molecular mechanism behind the remarkable underwater adhesion of hairy mussels. Their findings reveal an oxidation-independent adhesion process driven by interactions between EGF/EGF-like domains and GlcNAc-based biopolymers.

Engineers have invented a microscopic spectral sensor that can identify myriad materials with unprecedented accuracy.

Engineers have invented a microscopic spectral sensor that can identify myriad materials with unprecedented accuracy.

Researchers have developed a new type of optical memory called a programmable photonic latch that is fast and scalable, enabling temporary data storage in optical processing systems and offering a high-speed solution for volatile memory using silicon photonics.

Researchers have developed a new type of optical memory called a programmable photonic latch that is fast and scalable, enabling temporary data storage in optical processing systems and offering a high-speed solution for volatile memory using silicon photonics.

Many think dinosaurs first emerged on land well south of the equator that now forms part of Argentina and Zimbabwe, but they may have actually arisen in tougher conditions near the equator

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are intense flashes of radio light that last for only a fraction of a second. They are likely caused by the intense magnetic fields of a magnetar, which is a highly magnetic neutron star. Beyond that, FRBs remain a bit of a mystery. We know that most of them originate from outside our galaxy, though the few that have occurred within our galaxy have allowed us to pin the source on neutron stars. We also know that some of them repeat, meaning that FRBs can’t be caused by a cataclysmic event such as a supernova. Thanks to one repeating FRB, we now know something new about them.

In a new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers looked at FRB 20240209A, which was first observed by the CHIME radio telescope in February 2024. The FRB happened to be a repeater and was observed 21 times between February and June. Because it kept repeating, the team was able to observe six of the FRB events from a smaller, companion observatory 60 kilometers away. This allowed the team to pinpoint the source even though it was two billion light-years away.

They found a couple of unusual things. The first is that the FRB originated from the edge region of a galaxy. Most FRBs occur in the more central region of a galaxy because that’s where stars form and therefore where you’re more likely to find neutron stars. The second was that this particular galaxy is more than 11 billion years old, and is well past its star-forming period. What’s surprising about that is that neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars that die as supernovae. Large stars have cosmically short lifetimes, so the fact that this FRB occurred in an old, long-dead galaxy means that the neutron star that generated it must also be old.

The general reasoning was that FRBs are caused by young magnetars. The thought is that they could be caused by magnetic flares, similar to solar flares of the Sun. But since neutron stars can’t generate new heat, they cool and become inactive over time. So we shouldn’t see old neutron stars generating FRBs. This study proves that old stars can create FRBs.

One explanation for this is that the FRB might have occurred not within the galactic edge itself, but rather in a dense globular cluster orbiting at the edge of the galaxy. The galaxy is too far away for us to distinguish between these two options, but globular clusters are known to have numerous stellar mergers. One possibility is that this repeating FRB was caused by merging magnetars. As their magnetic fields merged and realigned, bursts of radio energy were released to create the FRB.

It will take more observations to be sure, but it is now clear that the astrophysical processes that create FRBs are more diverse than we thought.

Reference: Eftekhari, T., et al. “The Massive and Quiescent Elliptical Host Galaxy of the Repeating Fast Radio Burst FRB 20240209A.” The Astrophysical Journal Letters 979.2 (2025): L22.

The post A Fast Radio Burst Came From an Old, Dead Galaxy appeared first on Universe Today.

The Brandeis center has announced a settlement in its civil lawsuit against Harvard University for allowing the creation of an anti-Semitic atmosphere, and Harvard will make some changes. The deal is announced by the Center, and you can see the announcement by clicking below:

Harvard, of course, has admitted to neither wrongdoing nor liability; I suppose it’s just making these changes because it’s the right thing to do. LOL!

From CNN:

One day after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, who has said he would “remove the Jew haters” if reelected, Harvard University has settled two lawsuits accusing the Ivy League school of failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitic bullying and harassment on campus.

In the settlement with the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Jewish Americans for Fairness in Education, and Students Against Antisemitism — a group of six Jewish students — Harvard agreed to make several changes to how it addresses antisemitism on campus.

Among them is adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism when reviewing complaints of antisemitic discrimination and harassment and posting a document online that clarifies people who identify as Jewish and Israeli are covered by the school’s non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies.

Additionally, the school agreed to draft an annual report for the next five years that details its response to discrimination and harassment; hire a point person to consult with on all complaints of antisemitism, and provide training on combating antisemitism for staff who review the complaints.

“Today’s settlement reflects Harvard’s enduring commitment to ensuring our Jewish students, faculty, and staff are embraced, respected, and supported,” a Harvard University spokesperson said in a statement. “We will continue to strengthen our policies, systems, and operations to combat anti-Semitism and all forms of hate and ensure all members of the Harvard community have the support they need to pursue their academic, research and professional work and feel they belong on our campus and in our classrooms.”

Harvard has come under fire in the past year for how it addresses antisemitic bullying on campus. Much of the criticism and complaints from students and faculty stemmed from the protests and vandalism on campus following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.

Last year, Harvard received a failing grade from the Jewish civil rights advocacy group Anti-Defamation League for its policies to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus.

It also has the lowest Free Speech rating from FIRE among all 251 schools.  The two others right above it also have ratings of “abysmal”: NYU and Columbia, and both are, as I recall, subject to similar Title VI lawsuits.

I have no idea whether this settlement has anything to do with Trump’s threats, nor do I much care; I suspect, though, that a settlement was in the works before Trump was inaugurated. Harvard has not looked good after Claudine Gay stepped down on January 2, 2024, plagued by accusations not just of personal plagiarism, but of Harvard hypocrisy in how it dealt with speech.

At any rate, the IHRA definition of antisemitism is so tame that I don’t know why it’s even controversial. Here it is from their page of explanation:

Note that the definition doesn’t include anti-Zionism, but does state this:

Manifestations might include the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

To me, that means that if you deny the right of Israel to exist, that’s anti-Semitism, for it conceives of Israel, because it’s the one Jewish state, as the one state that has no right to exist. We all known that “Zionist” has long since become a euphemism for “Jews” by pro-Palestinian or anti-Israeli demonstrators, and this ruse no longer carries water. That’s the point made by Natasha Hausdorff in the Munk debate on whether anti-Zionism is the same as anti-Semitism, and Hausdorff and her partner, Douglas Murray, did change the mind of the audience about this. I’ve watched this video several times; Hausdorff’s final metaphor is brilliant.

As for the other agreeements, about annual reports, point persons, and the like, yes, they are necessary to combat the atmosphere of anti-Semitism that Harvard itself tacitly admitted by settling the lawsuit.

None of this, however, should be construed as prohibiting acts of speech that are anti-Semitic or anti-Israel.  A Harvard student still has the right to stand in Harvard Yard holding a placard reading “Gas the Jews.” (It won’t do his reputation much good, however.)  It’s only when a multiplicity of anti-Semitic acts, teaching, and speech add up to create an atmosphere that discriminates against Jews, or creates a climate that chills the speech of Jews, that lawsuits must be filed.

Next, Columbia and NYU. . .

More than 130 years after a fungus-eating orchid species was discovered, the purpose of its mysterious appendage has been revealed

At the end of large engineering projects, the design team is typically asked to develop a document, in some cases called a Theory of Operations. This document is meant to describe the design decisions, why they were made, and how they were implemented. The document intends to inform future engineers about why a system operates the way it does so they can assess if any modifications or improvements can be made. It also allows the design engineers to reflect on their work as a whole, sometimes in a new light. Recently, some original members of the design team of the James Webb Space Telescope decided to take their shot at a brief version of such a document, releasing a paper that describes the design history of what is now considered to be one of the crowning jewels of humanity’s space telescope fleet.

Pierre Bely, the (now retired) Chief Engineer for the Space Telescope and Science Institute (STScI), led the paper’s writing. He originally started conceptualizing the idea of a Hubble success back in the 1980s. He was prompted to do so by Riccardo Giacconi, the then-head of the STScI, who, given his experience on other satellites like Chandra and Einstein, knew how long it would take to develop a successor to Hubble. 

Hubble itself, the doyenne of Space Telescopes that served as the workhorse of astronomers for decades, wasn’t eventually launched when Bely was tasked with coming up with plans for a successor. It had taken almost 30 years of lobbying, building, and testing to launch Hubble in 1990, with an additional three years of extensive rework to repair it once it was in orbit. Hubble itself only had a 14-year mission lifetime, so even if its successor had started work before Hubble launched, it wouldn’t be ready to launch before its original mission ended.

Fraser has been watching JWST for a long time.

Budget constraints at STScI proved an initial challenge. The Institute had the staff to operate Hubble but not to design a completely new instrument from scratch. But, Bely did find some time in his role as Chief Engineer to develop some concepts. Preliminary design requirements were hazy, but the consensus between the originators of the idea that became JWST was that it should be able to see into the infrared, which was beyond Hubble’s capabilities. It was also planned with a 10-m mirror, which was intended to match several ground-based telescopes in the design phase.

Fortunately, NASA’s Advanced Concepts Office had already done preliminary work on several designs for a next-generation space telescope. The Very Large Space Telescope (VLST) kept the traditional name of NASA’s telescopes but was designed to be assembled in space by astronauts using the space shuttle. It was essentially just a version of Hubble with a bigger mirror.

The Golay-9 concept was a bit more out-of-the-box. It consisted of nine 1.7m telescopes that would work in concert with one another. However, it was again designed to be assembled by astronauts and placed in LEO.

Artist’s image of the Large Deployable Reflector, including astronaut in the midst of assembly.
Credit – NASA / JPL

Another concept was the Large Deployable Reflector, which was 20m in diameter with segmented mirrors. It would need a significant amount of cryogenics to stay cool as it orbited in LEO close to the space station – mainly ease assembly by astronauts and resupply of cryogenics.

Bely and Francois Roddier, an optics specialist, considered those ideas when designing an original 10m Hubble successor that looks almost nothing like the final form of the satellite. Initially proposed in 1986, it had an all-encompassing shield that was supposed to protect it from the light and heat of the nearby Earth while still being able to fit in the fairing of a modified Energia rocket designed by the then-Soviet Union.

During this time, the project took on a new name—the Next Generation Space Telescope, which it would be known by until it was renamed JWST in 2002. But before that, it had several more preliminary design iterations, including a “Detour via the Moon.” 

Bely and Roddier’s concept telescope.
Credit – P.Y. Bely / F Roddier / STScI

A space telescope doesn’t necessarily have to be free-floating in space – it can also be located on another heavenly body. That was the basis for an idea initially to coincide with President George H. W. Bush’s Space Exploration Initiative to return to the Moon in the 1990s. To match this design, a version of the NGST that housed a 16m mirror on the surface of the Moon that looked more like a traditional Earth-bound telescope than a free-floating space one. However, that idea died with the SEI as it became clear a few years into Bush’s tenure that NASA would not return to the Moon anytime soon – and still hasn’t.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, many workshops were held to discuss different trade-offs in the design of the NGST. These changed to a more formal structure in 1995, almost 5 years after Hubble had launched, at a workshop to define the design goals of the new Hubble successor that was called by Edward Weiler, NASA’s Chief Scientist for Hubble. That workshop kicked off two years of a study designed to result in a fully formed idea for a space telescope – and is what the modern version of JWST is based on today.

At the end of the study, the general outline of the space telescope was clear, with a sun shield facing the Sun and allowing radiative cooling on the other side while keeping a reasonable temperature for some operational electronics. It would also be located at the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrange point rather than on the Moon or in orbit around Earth. This had the advantage of being far enough away from Earth and the Moon that it no longer had to be completely enclosed as earlier concepts had been, giving it a much wider field of view.

“Yardstick” version of the JWST / NGST
Credit – NASA / GFSC

This version of JWST, known as the “Yardstick,” focused heavily on the design of the optical system, with an 8 m mirror originally proposed. It utilized beryllium due to its advantages for cryogenics on space telescopes, including its high thermal conductivity. It was designed to fit in an Atlast II fairing and be fully expanded after launch.

Even at this early stage in the project, cost was already a consideration, and JWST ran notoriously over budget during its development and testing cycle. However, at the time, the expected budget seemed in line with comparable missions like Hubble. NASA designed to move forward with a concept phase study and asked three aerospace companies to present their NGST ideas at an STScI meeting. That meeting resulted in a report in the summer of 1997 that specified three very different ideas from TRW, Ball Aerospace, and Lockheed Martin.

NASA decided to move forward with the TRW and Ball concepts, though Lockheed continued developing its own project in an effort to win back the business. After a while, TRW and Ball decided to combine their forces into a single mission study. Eventually, in 2001, Northrup Grumman bought TRW, and the division that managed the NGST project changed its name to Northrup Grumman Space Technology (NGST). NASA granted them the right to take the lead contractor role on the JWST.

Some of the discoveries JWST has made are astonishing.

Budget constraints further limited the scope of the mirror down to 6 meters from the planned 8, but at this point, the overall design seemed pretty much in line with what is currently floating in space today. Twenty years later, after much design refinement, manufacturing, and testing, it was successfully launched, and despite being blasted by micrometeorites (which admittedly was always part of the planned design), it has been providing us with fascinating pictures from every corner of space. With this paper, some of the original team members can reflect on their contributions to this marvel of space technology and be proud. In the end, all their efforts seem to have been worth it.

Learn More:
Bely et al – Genesis of the James Webb Space Telescope architecture: The designers’ story
UT – How Webb Stays in Focus
UT – Hubble and Webb are the Dream Team. Don’t Break Them Up
UT – The JWST is Re-Writing Astronomy Textbooks

Lead Image:
Artist’s view of a 16-meter telescope on the Moon, proposed by Bely. Telescope pointing made use of a hexapod with linear actuators. During the lunar day, a shield was to be rolled over the telescope to protect it from heat coming from the Sun
Credit – P. Y. Bely / D. Berry / STSCI

The post Tracing the Big Ideas that Led to Webb appeared first on Universe Today.

The discovery of a few thousand type 1a supernovae over the last few decades has helped measure the expansion of the Universe. The new Vera Rubin Observatory will soon to start scour the skies looking for more. Astronomers hope that the discovery and observations of millions more exploding stars will allow the universal expansion to be mapped in unprecedented detail. If all goes to plan, the survey will begin in a few months with the entire southern sky being scanned every few nights. 

A Type Ia supernova is a powerful explosion that occurs when a white dwarf star in a binary system accretes matter from its companion star. Eventually it will reach a critical mass triggering a catastrophic thermonuclear reaction that we see as a Type 1a supernova. They are characterised by a the absence of hydrogen in their spectra, which sets them apart from other types of supernovae. The event releases a phenomenal amount of energy, briefly outshining an entire galaxy. The shockwave from the event can often trigger the formation of new stars. 

2005ke, a Type 1a supernova. Credit: NASA/Swift/S. Immler

These violent explosions have played a key role in understanding the expansion of the universe. Much like cepheid variable stars, these supernovae have a consistent peak brightness due to the predictable nature of the thermonuclear explosion that triggers them. They can therefore be used as “standard candles” to measure astronomical distances. By comparing the apparent brightness of a Type Ia supernova with its known intrinsic luminosity, it’s possible to calculate how far away it is. When combined with redshift measurements (which indicate how much the wavelength of light has stretched as the universe expands), these distance measurements allow scientists to map the rate at which the universe is expanding. 

To date only a relative handful have been observed. This is where the Vera Rubin Observatory comes in. It’s located in the Atacama Desert of Chile and is designed to explore dark matter, dark energy, and the large-scale structure of the universe. Equipped with the world’s largest digital camera, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) will capture huge areas of the sky that will enable the mapping of millions of galaxies and track transient cosmic events like just like Type 1a supernovae and asteroids.

Thousands of stars glitter in the black skies above the bone-dry desert of the Atacama in northern Chile. Photo credit: Gerhard Hüdepohl/atacamaphoto.com.

Every night, the observatory – which is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science – will capture about 20 terabytes of data, generating an expected 10 million alerts. This in itself is an – ahem – astronomical challenge so alerts will be made available to science teams through seven community software systems. The alerts will be collated with other datasets and machine learning technology will categorise them as kilonovae, variable star or Type 1a supernovae. Astronomers can then utilise filter to hone in on the data most useful for their research.  

If the Vera Rubin Observatory is as successful as it is hoped and if it does indeed discover millions of new Type 1a supernovae, then it will be of great benefit to astronomers. Not only will we be able to build a far more accurate distance map of the cosmos but we will also be able to get a better understanding of its expansion and how it has evolved over time.

Source : NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory Will Detect Millions of Exploding Stars

The post Rubin Will Find Millions of Supernovae appeared first on Universe Today.

Even long-time readers are dominating threads with too many comments, which reduces intellectual diversity.  Please note this from Da Roolz (the posting guidelines) on the left sidebar:

9.) Try not to dominate threads, particularly in a one-on-one argument. I’ve found that those are rarely informative, and the participants never reach agreement. A good guideline is that if your comments constitute over 10% of the comments on a thread, you’re posting too much.

I am not calling out specific violaters, but asking for self-restraint. Perhaps everyone should refresh their knowledge of Da Roolz.

Thank you.

The shock discovery that metallic nodules could be producing oxygen in the deep sea made headlines last year – now the team behind it is launching a new project to confirm and explain the findings

Researchers have succeeded in controlling the arrangement of photochromic crystals known as diarylethenes.

A research team has recently developed a novel algorithm in quantum physics known as 'entanglement microscopy' that enables visualization and mapping of this extraordinary phenomenon at a microscopic scale. By zooming in on the intricate interactions of entangled particles, one can uncover the hidden structures of quantum matter, revealing insights that could transform technology and deepen the understanding of the universe.

A research team has recently developed a novel algorithm in quantum physics known as 'entanglement microscopy' that enables visualization and mapping of this extraordinary phenomenon at a microscopic scale. By zooming in on the intricate interactions of entangled particles, one can uncover the hidden structures of quantum matter, revealing insights that could transform technology and deepen the understanding of the universe.

A research team has recently developed a novel algorithm in quantum physics known as 'entanglement microscopy' that enables visualization and mapping of this extraordinary phenomenon at a microscopic scale. By zooming in on the intricate interactions of entangled particles, one can uncover the hidden structures of quantum matter, revealing insights that could transform technology and deepen the understanding of the universe.

Researchers have shown for the first time that heat transfer in the form of infrared radiation can influence chemical reactions more strongly than traditional convection and conduction methods.

A short time ago, astronomers observed a distant supermassive black hole (SMBH) located in a galaxy 270 million light-years away in the constellation Draco. For years, this galaxy (1ES 1927+654) has been the focus of attention because of the Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) at its core. It all began in 2018 when the SMBH’s X-ray corona mysteriously disappeared, followed by a major outburst in the optical, ultraviolet, and X-ray wavelengths. Astronomers began watching it closely, but what they saw next was completely unexpected!

As we covered in a previous article, much of the excitement was generated by the SMBH’s behavior, which suggested it was consuming a stellar remnant (a white dwarf). In addition, astronomers noted a huge increase in radio emissions and the formation of plasma jets extending from the black hole, which all happened over the course of a year. In a new paper, a team led by the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) describes how they watched a plasma jet forming in real time, something astronomers have never done before.

The team’s paper, which recently appeared in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, was led by UMBC associate professor Eileen Meyer. She was joined by multiple colleagues from UMBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Joint Space-Science Institute (JSI), and the Center for Space Science and Technology (CSST). Other members included researchers from the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics (JILA), the Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

Active galaxy 1ES 1927+654 (circled in green) harbors a central black hole weighing about 1.4 million solar masses and is located 270 million light-years away. (NASA/GSFC)

Astronomers have observed jets emanating from the poles of several SMBHs in the Universe. Some of these have been shown to accelerate gas and dust particles to close to the speed of light, leading to the term “relativistic jets.” In some cases, astronomers have observed jets extending for thousands or even hundreds of thousands of light-years from their host galaxy. These jets blast material across these distances, and some even trigger the formation of new stars along their paths.

In this case, the jet appeared after a period of variable activity in 1ES 1927+654, where the AGN began consuming more material and becoming 100 times brighter over the course of a few months – a change that normally TAKES thousands or millions of years. After nearly a year of extremely high X-ray emissions, the black hole quieted down again in 2020, only to increase its output again in 2023. At the same time, it began emitting radio waves at 60 times the previous intensity over just a few months, something that has never before been monitored in real time for an SMBH.

Based on radio observations using the Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA), the team obtained high-resolution radio imaging of the SMBH at the center of 1ES 1927+654. These observations clearly showed a pair of plasma jets forming around both poles of the black hole and expanding outward between 2023 and 2024. In recent years, scientists have identified “changing-look AGNs,” supermassive black holes that become far more active at radio frequencies from when they were first observed.

In those instances, astronomers naturally assumed that something must have happened in between since their observations were years or decades apart. This is the first instance where astronomers saw this change happening in real time, thereby offering clues as to how these changes happen. As Meyer said:

“We have very detailed observations of a radio jet ‘turning on’ in real-time, and even more exciting are the VLBI observations, which clearly show these plasma blobs moving out from the black hole. That shows us that this really is an outflow jet of plasma that’s causing the radio flare. It’s not some other process causing increased radio emission. This is a jet moving at likely 20 to 30 percent of the speed of light originating very near a black hole. That’s the exciting thing.”

Radio images of 1ES 1927+654 reveal emerging structures that appear to be jets of plasma erupting from both sides of the galaxy’s central black hole following a strong radio flare. Credit: NSF/AUI/NSF NRAO/Meyer at al. 2025

While these newly-forming jets are relatively small compared to the massive jets observed from some of the most powerful AGNs in the galaxy, they are likely to be more common across the Universe. While the largest jets extend far beyond their host galaxies and last for millions of years, scientists have become aware of smaller, shorter-lived jets – what they call “compact symmetric objects” (CSOs). In this sense, the jets observed in 1ES 1927+654 could represent a unique opportunity to learn more about how these structures form and grow with time.

Similarly, astronomers will keep an eye on this galaxy and its SMBH because of the tidal disruptions that could indicate the presence of a white dwarf that is slowly being consumed. Meyer and his team have also suggested that the appearance of these jets may be associated with “a single ingestion of a star or a gas cloud” and that a single tidal disruption event may be what powers short-term CSOs (for maybe 1,000 years, they venture). Said Meyer:

“We still don’t really understand after all these decades of studying these sources why only a fraction of accreting black holes produce jets and then exactly how they launch them. Until recently we could not literally look into that innermost region to see what’s happening—how the accretion disk surrounding the black hole is interacting with and producing the jet. And so there are still a lot of open questions there.”

While many unanswered questions still exist, several promising models exist for how jets might form. These observations could lead to collaborative efforts with theorists on how to interpret the data so these models can be refined. “There’s a lot of theoretical work to be done to understand what we’ve seen, but the good thing is that we have a massive amount of data,” Meyer says. “We’re going to keep following this source, and it’s going to continue to be exciting.” 

Further Reading: UMBC, The Astrophysical Journal Letters

The post Black Hole Jets Seen Forming in Real-Time appeared first on Universe Today.

Orion the Hunter, resplendent in the northern hemisphere’s night sky in winter, is more than an easily identified constellation. It’s home to the Orion Nebula, the nearest star-forming region to Earth. It’s a mere 1,500 light-years away and can be seen with the naked eye below the three stars that form Orion’s belt.

New Hubble images show how young, newly-formed stars in the Orion Nebula are altering their environments.

The Orion Nebula is one of the most heavily studied features in the sky. By observing Orion, astronomers have made great strides in understanding how stars and planets form. It’s home to hundreds of young protostars, two of which are featured in the Hubble image: HOPS 150 and HOPS 153, though HOPS 150 is actually a binary star. They get their names from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey, which is a sample of more than 400 young stellar objects (YSOs) in Orion’s molecular clouds.

HOPS 150 is in the image’s upper-right corner. Two young protesters orbit each other, each surrounded by its own disk. These very young stars are still growing by accreting material from these disks. The dark vertical line cutting through them is dust that’s being drawn into the pair of stars. The dust line is enormous, more than 2,000 AU across. Astronomers think that the binary protostar is about halfway to becoming a mature star.

HOPS 153 is actually out of this image’s frame, but its jet is clearly visible. Astronomers think that the YSO is much younger than HOPS 150. It radiates more infrared radiation, indicating that it’s surrounded by more dust than HOPS 150. It’s still firmly ensconced in its dusty birth nebula, and dust absorbs light from the star and re-emits it in the infrared.

Not all of the material that falls into a young protostar will become part of the star. YSOs often emit powerful jets of material from their poles. Research shows that these jets can extract up to 30% of a young star’s accretion power. The jets are visible where they crash into the interstellar medium, lighting it up and creating bow shocks and other features.

Artist’s conception of a star being born within a protective shroud of gas and dust. YSOs rotate rapidly, creating powerful magnetic fields. These fields can drive jets of material from the YSO’s poles, shaping their environment and how other stars form. Image Credit: NASA

YSOs like HOPS 153 spin more rapidly than mature stars and have more powerful magnetic fields as a result. This affects how the material is accreted onto the star and also drives the jets by collimating infalling material. The jets of material interact with the surrounding gas, heating it and causing bubbles to form. That affects how other stars can form from the gas and how planets form around the star. This is how YSOs can shape their environments.

Young stars are complex objects and can be difficult to observe. They’re often obscured by dust, and, like HOPS 153, their jets can be their most visible manifestation. These jets can extend for several light-years into space.

Stars seldom form in isolation, and as YSOs accrete material, they shape their surroundings and the stars that follow them. How exactly this all plays out is an area of intense study for astronomers and astrophysicists. Images like this from the Hubble are an important part of the effort.

The post Hubble Shows Young Stars Shaping Their Surroundings in the Orion Nebula appeared first on Universe Today.