Herbig–Haro object
Imagine you're making a sandcastle on the beach. You dig a hole and pile the sand around it to make a castle. As you're digging, you notice small pieces of sand flying out of the hole and bouncing off the sandcastle walls. These pieces of sand are like the Herbig-Haro objects in space.
Herbig-Haro objects are formed when a star is born. A star is formed when gas and dust from space come together and start to clump together due to gravity. This clumping of material starts to spin faster and faster, eventually forming a giant ball of gas and dust.
As this ball of gas and dust continues to grow, it gets hotter and hotter. Eventually, the temperature becomes so high that nuclear reactions start to happen in the core of the ball. These reactions release huge amounts of energy, causing a bright light to shine from the center of the ball. This is a star being born.
But when the star is born, it's not peaceful. The star is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that's still swirling around it. The material is fighting to fall onto the surface of the star but it can't directly because of its fast rotation. Over time, the star clears this debris with its solar wind and radiation.
But in the beginning, the material clashes with itself, creating these little explosions we call Herbig-Haro objects. These explosions are caused by pockets of material colliding with each other and heating up to very high temperatures. This heated material explodes outwards like the sand from the hole in the beach, causing shock waves that travel through space.
These shockwaves heat up the gas around them, causing it to become ionized which in turn lights up the Herbig-Haro object like a neon light.
So, when we see a Herbig-Haro object in space, we're seeing the result of a star being born and the violent clash of material around it. It's like a tiny explosion that gives us a clue about the universe's beginning.
Herbig-Haro objects are formed when a star is born. A star is formed when gas and dust from space come together and start to clump together due to gravity. This clumping of material starts to spin faster and faster, eventually forming a giant ball of gas and dust.
As this ball of gas and dust continues to grow, it gets hotter and hotter. Eventually, the temperature becomes so high that nuclear reactions start to happen in the core of the ball. These reactions release huge amounts of energy, causing a bright light to shine from the center of the ball. This is a star being born.
But when the star is born, it's not peaceful. The star is surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that's still swirling around it. The material is fighting to fall onto the surface of the star but it can't directly because of its fast rotation. Over time, the star clears this debris with its solar wind and radiation.
But in the beginning, the material clashes with itself, creating these little explosions we call Herbig-Haro objects. These explosions are caused by pockets of material colliding with each other and heating up to very high temperatures. This heated material explodes outwards like the sand from the hole in the beach, causing shock waves that travel through space.
These shockwaves heat up the gas around them, causing it to become ionized which in turn lights up the Herbig-Haro object like a neon light.
So, when we see a Herbig-Haro object in space, we're seeing the result of a star being born and the violent clash of material around it. It's like a tiny explosion that gives us a clue about the universe's beginning.