Spitzer Digs Up Hidden Stars: Infrared Image of BHR 71

Sig07-005a
spitzer_sig07-005a April 17, 2007

Image Source: http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/2145-sig07-005a-Spitzer-Infrared-Image-of-BHR-71

Two rambunctious young stars are destroying their natal dust cloud with powerful jets of radiation, revealed in an infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The stars are located approximately 600 light-years away in a cosmic cloud called BHR 71.

IIn infrared light, the baby stars are shown as the bright yellow smudges toward the center. Both of these yellow spots have wisps of green shooting out of them. The green wisps reveal the beginning of a jet. Like a rainbow, the jet begins as green, then transitions to orange, and red toward the end.

Image Use Policy: Public Domain

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
BHR 71
Subject - Milky Way
Star » Evolutionary Stage » Protostar
Star » Evolutionary Stage » Young Stellar Object
Star » Circumstellar Material » Outflow
Nebula » Type » Star Formation
Nebula » Type » Jet
Nebula » Appearance » Dark » Molecular Cloud

Distance

Universescale1
600 light years

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Arrow_left_blue Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 3.6 µm
Arrow_left_green Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Near-IR) 4.5 µm
Arrow_left_red Spitzer (IRAC) Infrared (Mid-IR) 8.0 µm
Spectrum_base
Arrow_top_blue
Arrow_top_green
Arrow_top_red