Washington, Nov 30: Astronomers have observed an embryonic sun-like star sprouting giant jets of gas, which might ultimately prove to be a cradle where planets and moons form.

As observed in a new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the star seems wrapped in a black cocoon of dust, with its natal envelope beginning to flatten and collapse, and streams of gas escaping.

"We are seeing this object in the early stages of stellar birth," said astronomy professor Leslie Looney, the lead author of a study about the star. "Eventually, the protostar will form into a star much like our sun, and the disk will form into planets and moons," he added.

Located about 800 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, the object is obscured by dust and therefore invisible to the eye. However, the Spitzer Space Telescope's sensitive infrared camera can penetrate the dust, and reveal the structures within.  

The brightest structure consists of an enormous, almost linear flow of shocked molecular hydrogen gas erupting from the protostar's two magnetic poles. These bipolar jets are so long, light would take about 1 1/2 years to travel from one end to the other.  

The bipolar jets shooting away from the star known as L1157, are enormous. The color white shows the hottest parts of the jets, with temperatures around 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit). Most of the material in the jets, seen in orange, is roughly zero degrees on the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales.

The flattened envelope around the fledgling star is perpendicular to the jets and appears deep black. This is because it is so thick with dust that even infrared light cannot escape. The envelope is big enough to engulf the equivalent of tens of thousands of mature solar systems similar to our own, while the planet-forming disk tucked inside cannot be seen in this photo, as it is smaller than a pixel.

"This is the first time we've clearly seen a flattened envelope around a forming star," said Leslie Looney of the University of Illinois, who's the lead author of a study about the star, called L1157. "Some theories had predicted that envelopes flatten as they collapse onto their stars and surrounding planet-forming disks, but we hadn't seen any strong evidence of this until now," he added.

Stars are born out of thick clouds, or envelopes, of gas and dust that condense and collapse inward.

As a star grows and feeds off the envelope, it spins faster and faster like a twirling ice skater. A disk of planet-forming material begins to take shape in orbit around the star, and jets of gas shoot up from above and below the disk to relieve the star's accumulating pressure. Eventually, the original envelope falls onto the spinning disk, and the jets slow to a stop.

The regions where all the action takes place are dark and dusty, letting little visible light escape. For example, the embryonic star L1157 appears black in visible-light views. Spitzer's infrared view of the star, on the other hand, penetrates the dusty haze, giving us a rare look at what our own solar system might have looked like when it was very young.

"Taking baby pictures of stars is not easy to do," said Looney. "Now that we have a good picture, we can begin to ask questions about whether this star system and its potential planets will grow up to become like ours," he added. (ANI)