Celestial Lightsabers: The Stellar Jets of HH 24 (3-D Fly, Short Version)

This movie envisions a three-dimensional perspective on the Hubble Space Telescope's striking image of the Herbig-Haro object known as HH 24. The sequence starts with a wide-field view covering the vast dark cloud of the Orion B molecular cloud complex and a scattering of stars. As the virtual camera flies into the dark nebula, the stars pass off-screen and the details of the forming stars and their jets of energetic emission are revealed. The central star is hidden by gas and dust, but its prominent twin jets of emission resemble a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber. These jets have carved an hourglass-shaped cavity in the near side of the nebula. The jet from another stellar newborn in this region has created a cylindrical tunnel through the gas extending to the left. Careful study of the Hubble data reveals a few other jets heating and displacing the gas and dust around them. The nebula provides a vivid example of a gas cloud shaped by stellar emission.