Binary Star XZ Tauri
Depicts: XZ Tauri
Copyright: NASA, John Krist (Space Telescope Science Institute), Karl Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Jeff Hester (Arizona State University), Chris Burrows (European Space Agency/Space Telescope Science Institute).
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These images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 reveal the
evolution of bubbles of glowing gas being blown out from the young binary star system XZ Tauri. Gas
from an unseen disk around one or both of the stars is channeled through magnetic fields surrounding the
binary system and then is forced out into space at nearly 300,000 miles per hour (540,000 kilometers per hour).
This outflow, which is only about 30 years old, extends nearly 60 billion miles (96 billion kilometers).
Last Update: 1 September 2019
