back to article Mighty multi-scope snaps stunning STARBIRTH image

Astronomers using the immense and astonishingly perceptive Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured a stunning image of the miracle of birth – starbirth, that is. Herbig-Haro 46/44 as imaged by ALMA Herbig-Haro 46/44 as imaged by ALMA (click to enlarge) Starbirth – a violent affair – results in the …

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  1. asdf

    Atacama in many ways is more like Mars than Earth but still the best spot on Earth for viewing electromagnetic activity from space is Ridge A in Antarctica. Can't wait to start seeing pictures coming from there when they finally put a telescope up.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      The Atacama desert is a freakishly weird place. It is unbelievable to see in person, you're right very Mars like (I assume).

      I thought the most surreal part of the place is that around the time the geogylphs were made there was a thriving society mining salt using the same basic layout used today and there was flowing water. Now all that is gone and visible only through satellite images. A whole culture and industry gone, with only weird, gigantic stone drawings, little forts, and legends left behind.

      Wonder what people thousands of years in the future will think of our cultures observatories and what legends they will create around whatever is left.

    2. Steven Roper

      The only problem with a telescope in Antarctica is that you can only ever see the Southern Hemisphere. Perhaps there's a similar location in Greenland where they could put a complementary telescope, then we could cover the entire sky.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Greenland - isn't

        It's rather white - on account of all the snow falling, from clouds

        1. Pascal Monett Silver badge
          Coat

          Greenland - was

          You know, before all that global warming.

          1. Blue eyed boy
            Happy

            Re: Greenland - was

            Not necessarily. Erik the Red got the all-time creative marketing award for the name Greenland

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I took a stroll out from San Pedro once. The Atacama is not at all flat as you would imagine. Surfing down the dunes is fun. There are bits in the middle of Australia that look more Mars like though and they are working cattle farms.

  2. KrisMac
    Mushroom

    I for one will welcome...

    "...revealed two jets of materials, one aimed at Earth .."

    ... our high-energy radioactive overlords... at least the politicains will fry right along with the rest of us....

  3. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    Stunning images

    That's all.

  4. Mr C
    Joke

    captain.. klingon bird of prey decloaking!

    i knew it was real all along :P

  5. Chris Coles

    My previous understanding of the nature of deep space was that there are indeed atoms of various elements widely spaced apart, but that they are separated and act as individual atoms. Indeed, deep space has often been described as having particles emerging and then disappearing under rules long ago laid out in Quantum Physics; yet here, and frequently recently the rules have been changed to permit the publication, (without contention), of the following phrase: "When the ejecta smash into the starbirth's surrounding gas".

    A gas is surely a quite different external environment in deep space? To my knowledge, the only book, (an e-book), published that describes exactly why we can make that change in perception, has never been reviewed by anyone, the author was shunned and as such the book was removed from availability to await funding for publication as a normal hardback book.

    Returning to the wonderful image; no mention has been made of the seemingly vast expanse of space that has been obliterated by a dark cloud mostly beneath the main image. If we were dealing with an event on this planet, when we see such a drifting cloud we would naturally assume that the cloud was drifting away from the event as a cloud of dust that blocked out the sun. But how does that drift occur in deep space?

    There must be an external gravitational influence, causing the resulting dust cloud to drift, as though within a moving homogeneous gas atmosphere surrounds the entire display...... IN DEEP SPACE!

    There is much more to this image than has been reported here.

    1. tony2heads
      Boffin

      drifting gas

      gas can also be moved around by radiation pressure & stellar winds. Hot young stars give off lots of wind

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      'To my knowledge, the only book, (an e-book), published that describes exactly why we can make that change in perception, has never been reviewed by anyone, the author was shunned and as such the book was removed from availability to await funding for publication as a normal hardback book.'

      Wouldn't be written by a one C. Coles by any chance?

      Star formation doesn't happen in matter-poor patches of deep space, it happens in massive clouds of gas & other materials that aren't all used up in the formation of the star, so there's plenty of stuff for the ejecta to push out into. In fact, those clouds are what have made observing stellar births hard until the arrival of 'scopes like ALMA which can see through those very clouds to the bouncing baby stars first steps.

  6. roomey
    Coat

    Supersonic speeds

    Just heard this on euro news, apparently the gas is getting expelled at SUPERSONIC speeds.

    Coat... Gone

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Supersonic speeds

      "euro" news - surely not.?

      The BBC covered it under "foreign"

  7. Blue eyed boy

    Rotate the image about 80° clockwyse, and the outline bears a distinct resemblance to the self-portrait of another Alma. Check out http://www.amazon.co.uk/THE-MUSIC-OF-ALMA-DEUTSCHER/dp/B00E3WZZVK

  8. NukEvil

    "Starbirth – a violent affair – results in the stellar babe ejecting materials at exceptionally high velocities of as much as one million kilometers per hour. In the case of the object viewed by Héctor Arce of Yale University and his international team, the birth is taking place about 1,400 light years away in the southern constellation of Vela.

    When the ejecta smash into the starbirth's surrounding gas, it glows, creating what's known as a Herbig-Haro object. Arce's study of this particular object, HH 46/44, revealed two jets of materials, one aimed at Earth and another aimed away."

    Isn't this almost exactly like childbirth? Except, a bit slower, and closer to home?

  9. OzBob
    Joke

    Send Jodie Foster to invesigate it

    you know, using one of those Eisntein-Rosen bridges and a tetrahedron.

    PS. Carl Sagan must be p!ssed he is missing out on all of these new images.

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