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Interstellar Jets

This JWST image shows a couple of Herbig-Hero objects, seen in infrared. These bright objects form when jets of fast-moving energetic particles are expelled from the poles of a newborn star. Those particles hit pockets of gas and dust, forming glowing, hot shock waves like those seen here in red. The star that birthed the object is out of view to the lower-right. The bright blue light surrounded by red spirals that sits near the tip of the shock waves is actually a distant spiral galaxy that happens to be aligned with our viewpoint. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/JWST; via APOD)

#astrophysics #fluidDynamics #jets #physics #science #shockwave #stellarEvolution

An astronomical image focused on a conical structure in red that crosses diagonally from lower right toward the upper left. Near the tip of the structure is bright blue light surrounded by pink spiral arms. This is a distant spiral galaxy that only appears aligned with the interstellar jet.

A Stellar Look at NGC 602

The young star cluster NGC 602 sits some 200,000 light years away in the Small Magellanic Cloud. Seen here in near- and mid-infrared, the cluster is a glowing cradle of star forming conditions similar to the early universe. A large nebula, made up of multicolored dust and gas, surrounds the star cluster. Its dusty finger-like pillars could be an example of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities or plumes shaped by energetic stellar jets. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/JWST; via Colossal)

#astronomy #fluidDynamics #fluidsAsArt #instability #nebula #physics #science #stellarEvolution

The star cluster NGC 602, as seen by instruments on the JWST.

NASA’s Webb Telescope Unmasks True Nature of the Cosmic Tornado https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasas-webb-telescope-unmasks-true-nature-of-the-cosmic-tornado/ #NASA #Astrophysics #GoddardSpaceFlightCenter #JamesWebbSpaceTelescopeJWST #ScienceResearch #Stars #StellarEvolution #TheUniverse

Jets, Shocks, and a Windblown Cavity

As material collapses onto a protostar, these young stars often form stellar jets that point outward along their axis of rotation. Made up of plasma, these jets shoot into the surrounding material, their interactions creating bright parabolic cavities like the one seen here. This is half of LDN 1471; the protostar’s other jet and cavity are hidden by dust but presumably mirror the bright shape seen here. (The protostar itself is the bright spot at the parabola’s peak.) Although the cavity is visibly striated, it’s not currently known what causes this feature. Perhaps some form of magnetohydrodynamic instability? (Image credit: NASA/Hubble/ESA/J. Schmidt; via APOD)

#astronomy #astrophysics #fluidDynamics #instability #jets #physics #plasma #science #stellarEvolution #stellarWind

LDN 1471 is a bright cavity created by a protostar.

Although the space between stars is empty by terrestrial standards, it’s not devoid of matter. There’s a scattering of cold gas and dust, pocked by areas known as prestellar cores with densities of a few thousand particles per cubic centimeter. This is just enough matter to help gravity eventually win its tug of war with the forces that would drive molecules apart.

When shock waves pass through these regions — whether thrown off a dying star or a newly birthed one — they compress the material, kickstarting the process of stellar formation. Passing shock waves can also shake loose molecules stuck to the dust, providing key tracer elements that astronomers can use to visualize shock waves and the areas they affect. To learn more, see this article over at Physics Today. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STSCI/K. Pontoppidan/A. Pagan; see also Physics Today)

https://fyfluiddynamics.com/2024/06/star-birthing-shock-waves/

#astronomy #astrophysics #flowVisualization #fluidDynamics #physics #science #shockWave #stellarEvolution