HH 211: Jets from a Forming Star.

Do stars always create jets as they form? No one is sure. As a gas cloud gravitationally contracts , it forms a disk that can spin too fast to continue contracting into a protostar . Theorists hypothesize that this spin can be reduced by expelling jets. This speculation coincides with known Herbig-Haro (HH) objects , young stellar objects seen to emit jets -- sometimes in spectacular fashion . Pictured is Herbig-Haro 211, a young star in formation recently imaged by the Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in infrared light and in great detail . Along with the two narrow beams of particles , red shock waves can be seen as the outflows impact existing interstellar gas . The jets of HH 211 will likely change shape as they brighten and fade over the next 100,000 years, as research into the details of star formation continues.