This jet and its first bow shock (HH 34) mark the inner portion of a chain of shocks which trace a graceful S-shaped curve from the upper right hand corner of the image down towards HH 1 & 2. Just above HH 34, a compact jet can be seen to emerge from the source star, which is not visible in this image. HH 34 itself is the bright and compact bow shock located near the bottom of HH 222. From the upper-right to the lower-right of the image runs a long chain of Herbig-Haro objects associated with the object HH 34. The nature of this feature remains largely unknown. Unlike most other HH objects, it is a source of polarized, non-thermal radio waves. If so, this outflow is more than 10 light-years long! The arc of light which looks like a waterfall (located above and to the right of the center of the image) is the enigmatic object HH 222. Recent observations indicate that the cone shape located near the right edge of the image (known as HH 401) may be a giant bow shock powered by the source of the HH 1 & 2 outflow. These objects were first recognized by Guillermo Haro and George Herbig around 1950 and today they are known as HH 1 and HH 2. The region below NGC 1999 reflection nebula contains a cluster of deeply embedded young stars. As these shock waves ram their surroundings, they heat up bow-shaped nebulae of glowing plasma. Outflowing jets from young stars also power luminous shock waves known as Herbig-Haro (HH) objects, which move through the surrounding gas at speeds of up to hundreds of kilometers per second (over 100,000 miles an hour). Several such nebulae are seen in this image. These jets punch holes through the opaque clouds in which the star is formed, holes through which the light of the new-born stars can escape to produce what are known as reflection nebulae. Powerful jets of gas are often the first visible manifestations of the birth of young stars. NGC 1999 lies at the center of a network of nebulous filaments which billow out and away like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. A small, triangle shaped patch of dusty material is seen in silhouette against the reflection nebula. The bright object in the bottom-left corner is the reflection nebula NGC 1999, which contains the young star V380 Orionis. Located in the constellation of Orion (the Hunter), the image show a portion of one of Orion’s giant molecular clouds (known as “Orion A”) where new stars are forming. This wide-field panorama of star formation was captured with the National Science Foundation’s Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak.
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