Cosmic Double-Bladed 'Lightsaber' Captured by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured what appears to be a cosmic, double-bladed lightsaber in the depths of space. The new "lightsaber" is actually two twin jets shooting out to space from a newborn star.

"Science fiction has been an inspiration to generations of scientists and engineers, and the film series Star Wars is no exception," said John Grunsfeld, one of the researchers, in a news release. "There is no stronger case for the motivational power of real science than the discoveries that come from the Hubble Space Telescope as it unravels the mysterious of the universe."

The "lightsaber" is actually located in our own Milky Way galaxy. It's actually inside a turbulent birthing ground for new stars known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, which is located about 1,350 light-years away from Earth.

When stars form within giant clouds of cool hydrogen gas, some of the surrounding material collapses under gravity to form a rotating, flattened disk encircling the newborn star. While planets will later congeal within the disk, at this early stage the protostar is feeding on the disk with a massive appetite. While gas from the disk rains down on the protostar and engorges it, superheated material spills away and is shot outward from the star in opposite directions along the star's rotation axis.

These young jets are actually ideal targets for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope, which will have even greater infrared wavelength vision to see deeper into the dust surrounding newly forming stars.

For more images from the Hubble Space Telescope, visit NASA's website.

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