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Hubble Telescope Sees Celestial Fireworks for Fourth of July

Image: Herbig-Haro 110 is a geyser of hot gas from a newborn star that splashes up against and ricochets off the dense core of a cloud of molecular hydrogen. This image is a composite of data taken with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2004 and 2005 and the Wide Field Camera 3 in April 2011. Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

A spectacular new picture from the Hubble Space Telescope has captured a cosmic fireworks display in deep space: a geyser of gas fired off from a baby star.

The celestial display is the result of Herbig-Haro 110, a gas jet erupting from a distant star and bouncing off of a nearby dust cloud. NASA scientists likened the impressive celestial jet to the skyrockets launched each year in the United States to mark the Independence Day holiday on July 4.

“Resembling a Fourth of July skyrocket, Herbig-Haro 110 is a geyser of hot gas from a newborn star that splashes up against and ricochets off the dense core of a cloud of molecular hydrogen,” Hubble scientists said in a statement today (July 3). “Although the plumes of gas look like whiffs of smoke, they are actually billions of times less dense than the smoke from a July 4 firework.”