Young stars, or protostars, are often observed with jets of material extending from their magnetic poles for hundreds or even thousands of lightyears. The processes that create these jets, while not fully understood, should create jets that are symmetric.
One such protostar, called Herbig Haro 34 (HH34), was observed to have only one jet when Hubble and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) looked at it in optical wavelengths. This is because dust blocks our view to the second jet. To get around this, scientists had to look at the star in the infrared with the Spitzer Space Telescope which enabled them to peer through the dust and see the second jet.
Looking at HH34 in the infrared (right) revealed the second jet previously hidden in the visible image (left). Interestingly, in both images bow shocks can be seen (sideways V’s), which are just the ends of the jets after they have passed through the gas and dust surrounding the star.
What’s more interesting is that it was found that the two jets are actually out of sync with each other! A ‘knot’ or ‘sputter’ seen in the left jet is not seen in the right jet for ~4.5 years! This delay between the two jets cannot be caused by the star itself, from what we know, so must be caused by the material surrounding the star. It is thought there must be some asymmetry in the disk around the star which causes this delay seen in the jets.
Take a look at an animated movie of the visible jet, taken by Hubble over a number of years:
Inspiring, no?
Image credits: Spitzer/VLT: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Hubble animations: NASA/ESA Hubble and Patrick Hartigan
