A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two protostars in the Orion Nebula, a diffuse nebula located approximately 1,350 light-years away in the constellation of Orion.
This Hubble image shows HOPS 150 and HOPS 153, two protostars within the famous Orion Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / T. Megeath.
The Orion Nebula can be seen with the naked eye as a fuzzy patch surrounding the star Theta Orionis in the Hunter’s Sword, below Orion’s belt.
The nebula had been known since the beginnings of recorded astronomy as a star, but it is so outstanding that it was first noted as an extended nebula in 1610, only a year after Galileo Galilei’s first use of the telescope.
Detailed descriptions of the Orion Nebula started appearing later in the 17th century, and it has been a popular target for anyone with a telescope ever since.
Also known as NGC 1976, Messier 42, M42, LBN 974, and Sharpless 281, the nebula spans about 24 light-years.
At only 2 million years old, the object is an ideal laboratory for studying young stars and stars that are still forming.
It offers a glimpse of what might have happened when the Sun was born 4.6 billion years ago.
“The Orion Nebula is home to hundreds of newborn stars including the subject of this image: the protostars HOPS 150 and HOPS 153,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“These protostars get their names from the Herschel Orion Protostar Survey, which was carried out with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory.”
“The object that can be seen in the upper-right corner of this image is HOPS 150: it’s a binary system, two young protostars orbiting each other.”
“Each has a small, dusty disk of material surrounding it that it is feeding from.”
“The dark line that cuts across the bright glow of these protostars is a cloud of gas and dust, over 2,000 times wider than the distance between Earth and the Sun, falling in on the pair of protostars.”
“Based on the amount of infrared versus other wavelengths of light HOPS 150 is emitting, the protostars are mid-way down the path to becoming mature stars.”
“Extending across the left side of the image is a narrow, colorful outflow called a jet. This jet comes from the nearby protostar HOPS 153, out of frame,” they said.
“HOPS 153 is a significantly younger stellar object than its neighbor, still deeply embedded in its birth nebula and enshrouded by a cloud of cold, dense gas.”
“While Hubble cannot penetrate this gas to see the protostar, the jet HOPS 153 has emitted is brightly visible as it plows into the surrounding gas and dust of the Orion Nebula.”
“The transition from tightly swaddled protostar to fully fledged star will dramatically affect HOPS 153’s surroundings.”
“As gas falls onto the protostar, its jets spew material and energy into interstellar space, carving out bubbles and heating the gas.”
“By stirring up and warming nearby gas, HOPS 153 may regulate the formation of new stars in its neighborhood and even slow its own growth.”
