The scale of things in our universe is really something outside our ability as humans to understand, and across all those different scales, physics works the same. Just as infalling material around a black hole can power massive jets, infalling material around a forming star can also form jets – smaller, less exciting jets – but jets all the same. 

In a new image from the Gemini South telescope, astronomers have captured the asymmetric jets of a forming star. A dark band can be seen blocking light from where the star is believed to be. The band is thought to be the disk where planets could form in the future. According to the NOIRLab press release, this system looks like a one-winged butterfly. This glowing system is part of a larger star-forming region and is surrounded by gas that is reflecting light, casting an eerie glow on the entire scene.

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NOIRLab press release