Astronomy Picture of the Day
    


A Disk and Jet in Haro 6-5B
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A Disk and Jet in Haro 6-5B
Credit & Copyright: J. Krist (STScI), D. Padgett (IPAC/Caltech) et al., WFPC2, HST, NASA
Explanation: Planets condense from disks. Several new Hubble Space Telescope pictures of stars surrounded by disks were released earlier this week. Since the glare of the central star usually makes a surrounding disk hard to see, prior observations in radio and infrared light were used to isolate systems where the disk was edge-on, blocking much of the central starlight. One such disk system, Haro 6-5B, is shown above in false color. Here, the central disk confines the emitted light into an hourglass shape. Complex dust clouds appear dark. A powerful protruding jet is shown in green. This budding planetary system measures 0.2 light-years across. Quite possibly, our own Solar System looked like this about 5 billion years ago.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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Based on Astronomy Picture Of the Day

Publications with keywords: disk - jet
Publications with words: disk - jet
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