Email Print Share
June 8, 2012

Radio Jets Emitted by Young Star

A radio infrared image of IRAS 18162-2048, a young star 5,500 light years away from the Earth.

Radio jets emitted by the young star are shown in yellow over the background of an infrared image by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The yellow bars show the orientation of a magnetic field in the jet, as measured by the Very Large Array; green bars show magnetic field orientation in the dusty envelope surrounding the young star. Two other young stars are seen at the sides of the jet. This is the first evidence found by astronomers of a magnetic field in a jet of material ejected from a young star.

To read more about this discovery, see the NRAO news story Discovery at Young Star Hints Magnetism Common to All Cosmic Jets. (Date of Image: 2010)

Credit: Carrasco-Gonzalez et al., Curran et al., Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF, NASA


Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.

Also Available:
Download the high-resolution JPG version of the image. (876 KB)

Use your mouse to right-click (Mac users may need to Ctrl-click) the link above and choose the option that will save the file or target to your computer.