This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope in infrared light. The bright lines in this picture are particle beams, powerful jets of electrons and protons moving hundreds of km/s. Frequently, when a star forms, a disk of dust and gas circles the Young Stellar Object causes powerful central jets to appear. In this case, the energetic jets are creating aYSO called Herbig-Haro object 24 (HH 24), as they slam into the surrounding interstellar gas. The star forming region shown here lies about 1,500 light years away in the Orion B molecular cloud complex. Because of their rarity, jets like the one forming HH 24 are estimated to last only a few thousand years.
Image Credit: NASA