XZ Tauri System Ejects Gas Bubble
Explanation:
Why is the binary star system XZ Tauri emitting
a hot bubble of expanding gas?
Although astronomers can only presently speculate, the
Hubble Space Telescope
clearly documents this unusual behavior in
three dramatic photographs over the past five years.
Even without knowing why, the
recently released
sequence shows in unprecedented clarity the
beginnings of a cooling zone -- a region where the
expanding gas bubble cools off by emitting light as
electrons and
ions meet and
recombine.
The
XZ Tauri star system is known to reside in the
Taurus star forming region located about 500
light-years away.
XZ Tau is composed of two very young stars
separated by roughly the same distance as between our
Sun and Pluto.
The bubble has been expanding over the past
thirty years and now extends to nearly fifteen times the
binary separation.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
