Nasa shares photo of sceptre-like object in space captured by Hubble telescope

American space agency Nasa recently released the photograph of a relatively rare celestial phenomenon known as a Herbig-Haro object. The image has been captured by the Nasa/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3.

The object is called HH111, Nasa said, adding they develop under very specific circumstances.

“Newly formed stars are often very active, and in some cases they expel very narrow jets of rapidly moving ionized gas – gas that is so hot that its molecules and atoms have lost their electrons, making the gas highly charged,” Nasa said in a release.

“The streams of ionized gas then collide with the clouds of gas and dust surrounding newly formed stars at speeds of hundreds of miles per second. It is these energetic collisions that create Herbig-Haro objects such as HH111,” the space agency said.

Nasa further said that Herbig-Haro objects actually release a lot of light at optical wavelengths, but are difficult to observe because their surrounding dust and gas absorb much of the visible light.

What is Herbig-Haro object?

These are small nebulosities 10,000 astronomical units in diameter, each containing several star-like condensations in configurations similar to the Trapezium, Theta Orionis, in the sword of Orion.

According to Britannica, Herbig-Haro objects are considered to be star groups at the very beginning of life.

How are Herbig-Haro objects formed?

According to Nasa, they are formed when gas ejected by young stars collides with clouds of gas and dust nearby at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second. Herbig-Haro objects are ubiquitous in star-forming regions, and several are often seen around a single star, aligned along its rotational axis.

History of observations

The first documented case of Herbig-Haro object was recorded in late 19th century by American astronomer Sherburne Wesley Burnham. He looked at the star T Tauri with the 36-inch refracting telescope.