Herbig-Haro 49/50 is a turbulent outflow from a nearby forming star, shown alongside a colorful spiral galaxy in a detailed image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The image combines data from its NIRCam and MIRI instruments, revealing intricate activity.
Herbig-Haro objects are jets from forming stars that travel light-years and collide with denser material, creating shock waves. This heats the material, then cools by emitting light in visible and infrared wavelengths.
In 2006, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope dubbed Herbig-Haro 49/50 (HH 49/50) the “Cosmic Tornado” due to its spiral shape. However, scientists were unsure about the fuzzy object at the tip of the “tornado.”
Thanks to Webb’s higher-resolution imaging, researchers have identified the fuzzy object as a distant spiral galaxy. The imaging reveals detailed features in the outflow and showcases numerous background galaxies.
HH 49/50 is part of the Chamaeleon I Cloud complex, a nearby star-forming region in our Milky Way that creates low-mass stars like the Sun. This cloud resembles the environment where our Sun likely formed. Observations show the HH 49/50 outflow is moving away at 100-300 kilometers per second and is part of a larger outflow.
Using Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI, scientists mapped glowing hydrogen molecules, carbon monoxide molecules, and dust energized by the protostellar jet. These details help model the jet’s properties and impact on the surrounding material.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
The arc-like features in HH 49/50 resemble a water wake and trace back to the jet source, likely the protostar Cederblad 110 IRS4, located 1.5 light-years away. This Class I protostar, surrounded by a disk of material, is actively gaining mass. Webb’s instruments also examined the icy composition of its environment.
Some arcs don’t align with the jet source, such as a feature in the upper right of the image. Scientists think it might be a superimposed outflow or fragments of the main outflow breaking apart.
‘Running Man’ in space?
At the tip of HH 49/50 is a distant spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its central bulge, shown in blue, marks regions of older stars and hints at “side lobes,” suggesting it could be a barred-spiral galaxy.
The reddish clumps in the spiral arms indicate areas of warm dust and forming stars. At the same time, evacuated bubbles in the dusty regions resemble features observed in nearby galaxies during Webb’s PHANGS program.
Webb captured these unrelated objects in an accidental alignment. Over time, HH 49/50’s edge will expand outward and eventually obscure the distant galaxy.
Source: Tech Explorist
