Immense stellar jet in Milky Way outskirts

Way out toward the edge of our Milky Way galaxy, a young star that is still forming is sending out a birth announcement to the Universe in the form of a celebratory looking firework.

These seething twin jets of hot gasses are blazing across eight light-years – twice the distance between our Sun and the nearest star system. Superheated gases falling onto the massive star are blasted back into space along the star’s rotational axis and powerful magnetic fields confine the jets to narrow beams.

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope witnessed the spectacle in infrared light. The jets are plowing into interstellar dust and gas, creating fascinating details captured only by Webb.

The discovery has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Read the full story on esawebb.org

[Image description: Gaseous yellow-orange filaments look like a rose seen from the side and tilted slightly from upper left to lower right, slightly higher than the centre of the frame. Extending from the rose to the upper left and lower right are gaseous outflows that appear as red lobes that have an overall shape of tall, narrow triangles with rounded tips. Each red triangle is made up of wavy, irregular lines. Dozens of stars are scattered across the field. One particularly bright white star with eight diffraction spikes is located at the top of the yellow rose. Another bright blue star with even more prominent diffraction spikes is to its lower left. The background of space is black.]