NASA watch as a new star bursts into life

The space agency is monitoring star V1647 Orionis

The Nebula: The protostar V1647 Orionis resides at the tip of a conical glow called McNeil's Nebula
Both the star and the nebula are located about 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Orion

During its outbursts, the infant star V1647 Orionis illuminated McNeil's Nebula. the magnetic fields drive powerful flows onto the star, creating two hot spots that produce the high-energy emission

Kenji Hamaguchi, an astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, and lead author of the study, said: 'Based on infrared studies, we suspect that this protostar is no more than a million years old, and probably much younger.'

www.dailymail.co.uk...
What actually causes the star's outbursts? Astronomers don't really know
Why is that always the case

Cran

reply to post by cranspace


Wow, that was pretty cool. I never imagined that was how stars collected gas from the surrounding disc. I always pictured them forming something like a snowball rolled over a snow covered lawn. Thanks for sharing!

What actually causes the star's outbursts? Astronomers don't really know
Why is that always the case

Cran

Baby Star...Solar tantrums?

We see stars go super-nova, blow-up, all the time but never form..
Not certain that is what we are seeing here.

Originally posted by abeverage

What actually causes the star's outbursts? Astronomers don't really know
Why is that always the case

Cran

Baby Star...Solar tantrums?

Right, birth is beautiful, but in a painful kinda way....

That is breathtaking.

Pardon my ignorance but I did not see if the article mentions whether or not this is new. I was always under the impression that once we can see this, it means it has happened billions of years ago. It takes billions of years for the light from these star formations to make it into our vision.

Awesome!

reply to post by Rabbi4Peace


It was stated in the OP that this nebula is 1,300 light years away so that would mean we are seeing now what happened 1300 years ago as the light is just now reaching us.

ETA: Pretty awesome seeing this star form and how it is collecting mass.

reply to post by Rabbi4Peace

we suspect that this protostar is no more than a million years old, and probably much younger.'

And what they see now happened 1300 years ago

Cran