The latest image released from the Spitzer Space Telescope shows a pair of stars destroying their surroundings with powerful jets of radiation. The stars are located about 600 light-years away in a nebula called BHR 71. The image attached here shows what the object looks like in the infrared spectrum, which can peer through obscuring dust.
Under visible light, everything just looks like a large black structure; only a little yellow light reveals that there might be stars forming inside. But when you look in the infrared spectrum, everything’s different. The young stars are the bright yellow dots near the middle of the image. The jets are wisps of green shooting out of them. As the jets extend, they cool down, transitioning to orange and then red at the end.
Astronomers believe the stars are giving off regular bursts of energy. The material closest to the stars is heated by the shockwaves from a recent stellar outburst. Other outbursts are further along the jet, getting cooler as they get more distant from the star.
Original Source: CfA News Release
