The universe still baffles many scientists. A few theories have already come out on how stars are formed, yet the universe still surprises and shows more ways in which stars come out. Recently super-heated gas streams have been seen as possibly making new stars, adding yet another possible way in which stars are formed.
Scientists are looking at a stream of super-heated gas coming out from a young star. This super-heated gas could likely be used to form new stars later on. Scientists have viewed this through the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). This super-heated gas stream is known as a jet.
Stars in its early stages emit super-heated material in two streams. These streams are called bipolar outflows or jets. These streams come out of a young star and flow in opposite directions. The star being observed is Cepheus E, which is 2,400 light years from the Earth. It is a massive star in its early stage of formation, according to NASA.
The star is being observed by a team led by Bertrand Lefloch from the University of Grenoble Alpes in France. The two jets coming from the star extends to around 118 billion miles and is traveling at a speed of 200,000 to 300,000 mph. The jets are also fairly recent, being less than 1,000 years old.
The jet has three main components. There is the jet itself, the regions of surrounding gas and gas clouds and the shock waves emitting from the jet that disturbs the clouds. The shock waves are the ones that could be creating new stars, as Phys Org reports.
SOFIA has become even more valuable now because of the Upgraded German Receiver at Terahertz Frequencies or upGREAT. upGREAT is used to map out stars and the components that comprise it. upGREAT also has more sensors that can detect celestial gas molecules and great more detailed maps.
As new instruments are being used, there are more mysteries that are being seen in the universe. One of them are the super-heated gas streams that are seen as possibly making new stars. An old star has been seen that could possibly show what the future awaits for the Earth.
