HH 909A (2012)

HH stands for Herbig-Haro. Herbig-Haro objects are extremely fascinating, short-lived phenomenon. A few thousand years is a long time to us, but that’s a very short time for the cosmos! The polar jets are propelled away from the star at hundreds of kilometers per second. The star itself is surrounded by a toroidal (that’s a donut) accretion disk. I think most of what you see in this image is the accretion disk. The jets are either not visible here or I misunderstood the image when I wrote this. A wider view may be necessary to spot the jets.

Data used:
HST_10138_18_ACS_WFC_F775W_sci
HST_10138_19_ACS_WFC_F775W_sci
HST_10138_18_ACS_WFC_F850LP_sci
HST_10138_19_ACS_WFC_F850LP_sci

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.