NASA's Hubble Telescope Spots Cosmic 'Light Saber' - East Idaho News
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NASA’s Hubble Telescope Spots Cosmic ‘Light Saber’

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(NEW YORK) — Clearly some of the scientists at NASA have Star Wars: The Force Awakens on their minds.

A photo taken by NASA’s Hubble telescope released this week shows what the space agency says looks a lot like a real-life cosmic light saber in our own galaxy.

NASA said the image shows a newborn star with twin jets shooting out into the Milky Way. The newborn star is located 1,350 light years away from Earth.

While Star Wars fans may see a double-bladed light saber, there’s a real-life explanation for what’s happening.

“Gas from a surrounding disk rains down onto the dust-obscured protostar and engorges it. The material is superheated and shoots outward from the star in opposite directions along an uncluttered escape route — the star’s rotation axis,” the Hubble team said in a blog post. And that’s how the light saber effect is created.

Elsewhere in space, astronauts at the International Space Station are patiently waiting for their chance to watch the latest Star Wars installment.

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