Telescope unveils a stellar deception

摘要

A heavenly masquerade may shed light on the nature of astrophysical jets-the beams of material spewed by a wide variety of celestial objects. Astronomers came upon the stellar puzzle while observing a dust-shrouded body called Hen 2-90 with the Hubble Space Telescope. The object had been classified as the remains of a dying, lightweight star. The new images reveal, however, that the object exhibits behavior unlike that of any corpse. Hen 2-90 has a pair of oppositely directed jets that spout clumps of gas.