                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                 2025 May 28

                               Herbig-Haro 24
   Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA) / Hubble-Europe
                                Collaboration
    Acknowledgment: D. Padgett (GSFC), T. Megeath (University of Toledo),
                     B. Reipurth (University of Hawaii)

   Explanation: This might look like a double-bladed lightsaber, but these
   two cosmic jets actually beam outward from a newborn star in a galaxy
   near you. Constructed from Hubble Space Telescope image data, the
   stunning scene spans about half a light-year across Herbig-Haro 24 (HH
   24), some 1,300 light-years or 400 parsecs away in the stellar
   nurseries of the Orion B molecular cloud complex. Hidden from direct
   view, HH 24's central protostar is surrounded by cold dust and gas
   flattened into a rotating accretion disk. As material from the disk
   falls toward the young stellar object, it heats up. Opposing jets are
   blasted out along the system's rotation axis. Cutting through the
   region's interstellar matter, the narrow, energetic jets produce a
   series of glowing shock fronts along their path.

                       Tomorrow's picture: open space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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