The star at the center of the frame is a young star – a variable star – named V633 Cassiopeiae. In this photo from the Hubble Space Telescope, it appears as if the star just sneezed. In fact, if you could watch over a timescale of many thousands of years, you’d find that the star is having a sneezing fit. It’s firing off rapid releases of super-hot, super-fast gas.
The star’s “sneezes” – launched due to its magnetic fields – can contain as much mass as Earth. They move at hundreds of kilometers/miles per second into nearby clouds of gas. Shock waves form, such as the U-shape below this star. As the waves crash outwards, they can be seen moving across human timescales of years.
Soon, this star will stop sneezing, and mature to become a star like our sun.
Deborah Byrd created the EarthSky radio series in 1991 and founded EarthSky.org in 1994. Prior to that, she had worked for the University of Texas McDonald Observatory since 1976, and created and produced their Star Date radio series. Today, she serves as Editor-in-Chief of this website. She has won a galaxy of awards from the broadcasting and science communities, including having an asteroid named 3505 Byrd in her honor. In 2020, she won the Education Prize from the American Astronomical Society, the largest organization of professional astronomers in North America. A science communicator and educator since 1976, Byrd believes in science as a force for good in the world and a vital tool for the 21st century. "Being an EarthSky editor is like hosting a big global party for cool nature-lovers," she says.
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