Credit: Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Muzerolle (STScI), E. Furlan (NOAO and Caltech), K. Flaherty (Univ. of Arizona/Steward Observ.), Z. Balog (Max Planck
Inst. for Astronomy), and R. Gutermuth (Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst)
Acknowledgment: R. Hurt (Caltech/Spitze
PROTOSTAR LRLL 54361 --
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes have teamed up to uncover a
mysterious infant star that behaves like a police strobe light.
[Left] -- This is a false-color, infrared-light Spitzer image of LRLL 54361
inside the star-forming region IC 348 located 950 light-years away. The Spitzer Space Telescope discovered an unusual variable object that has the
typical signature of a protostar. The object emits a burst of light every
25.34 days.
[Center] -- This Hubble Space Telescope monochromatic-color image resolves the
detailed structure around the protostar, consisting of two cavities that are
traced by light scattered off their edges above and below a dusty disk. The cavities were likely blown out of the surrounding natal envelope of dust and gas by an outflow launched near the central object.
[Right] -- This is an artist's impression of the hypothesized central object that may be two young binary stars. Astronomers propose that the flashes are due to material in a circumstellar disk suddenly being dumped onto the
growing stars and unleashing a blast of radiation each time the stars get
close to each other in their orbit.