Laser sword in the heart: Hubble telescope captures rare cosmic phenomenon

The spectacular scene, as if borrowed from Star Wars, actually depicts jets of heated ionized gas that rush into space from opposite poles of the newborn star IRAS 05491 + 0247, LiveScience reports.

A cloud of residual dust and gas surrounds the protostar. This phenomenon is called the Herbig object - Aro. What is shown in the Hubble telescope image is located about 1300 light years from Earth, in the constellation Orion and is named HH111.

According to the staff of the European Space Agency in a commentary on the photo, "Herbig-Haro objects emit a lot of light at optical wavelengths, but they are difficult to observe because the dust and gas surrounding them absorbs most of the visible light." However, the WFC3 camera is capable of making observations in both optical and infrared (thermal) ranges. In the latter, gas and dust do not affect the image, which is why the telescope was able to take the picture.