NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured an energetic outburst from an infant star. The star is extremely young and in the earliest phase of formation. The outburst- an incandescent gas jet- is traveling at supersonic speeds.
The collision of the jet with material surrounding the star generates shock heat that causes the outburst to glow. The result is the colorfully wispy structures, which astronomers dubbed as Herbig–Haro objects, billowing across the lower right of this image.
The object that Hubble captured in this image is HH34. HH-34 is located at a distance of approx. 1,500 light-years, near the famous Orion Nebula.
The data in this image are from a set of Hubble observations of four nearby bright jets with the Wide Field Camera 3 taken to help pave the way for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.