Jets emerge from the core of the multi-star system FS Tau in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
This Hubble image shows FS Tau, a multi-star system 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / K. Stapelfeldt, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory / Gladys Kober, NASA / Catholic University of America.
FS No It is located about 450 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.
The system is part of the Taurus-Auriga region, a collection of dark molecular clouds that are home to newly formed and young stars.
Also known as HH 157 or TIC 58437437, FS Tau is only 2.8 million years old – too young for a star system.
„FS Tau is composed of FS Tau A, the bright star-like object in the center of the image, and FS Tau B, the bright object to the right obscured by dark, vertical dust,” Hubble astronomers said.
„The young products of this stellar nursery are surrounded by slowly glowing gas and dust.”
„FS Tau B is a protostar surrounded by a protoplanetary disk, a pancake-shaped collection of dust and gas left over from star formation that will eventually coalesce into planets.”
„A thick dust lane seen almost edge-on separates what are thought to be the luminous surfaces of the burnt disc.”
“FS Tau B is in the process of becoming a T Taurus starA type of young variable star that has not yet begun nuclear fusion, but is beginning to evolve into a hydrogen-fueled star like our Sun.
„Protostars shine with thermal energy released by the collapse of the gas clouds from which they form, and by the accretion of material from nearby gas and dust.”
„Variable stars are a class of star whose brightness changes significantly over time.”
„FS Tau A is a T Tauri binary system in which two stars orbit each other,” the researchers added.
„Protostars are known to eject fast-moving, column-like streams of energetic material called jets, and FS Tau B provides a striking example of this phenomenon.”
„The protostar is the source of the unusual asymmetric, double-sided jet, visible here in blue.”
„Its asymmetric structure may result from differences in the rates at which mass is ejected from the material.”
„FS Tau B is classified as a Herbic-harrow material,” they said.
„Herbic-harrow objects form when jets of ionized gas ejected by a young star collide at high speed with nearby gas and dust clouds, creating bright patches of nebulosity.”