A bright protostar lit up its sibling to life – Astronomy Magazine

A young star bursting with activity may have lit the torch that kicked another protostar on its path to a full-fledged stellar machine.

HOPS 370, a protostar 1,400 light years away in Orion, sent an outflow event toward HOPS 108. HOPS 370 has a few million year jump in age of on 108, and sent out the jet of gas from its poles around 100,000 years ago. In turn, this massive outflow activated a ball of gas that formed HOPS 108, kicking off its stellar life.

The researchers made the discovery by following the path of a jet, which seemed to be in the vicinity of the younger star. There are four stars in the region that could have seen a similar effect.

The discovery was made at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico. The researchers published their results in the Astrophysical Journal.

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A bright protostar lit up its sibling to life - Astronomy Magazine