Hubble sees a cosmic bat flapping its wings deep in the Serpens Nebula

Out in the depths of the Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years away, lurks a strange creature. Here, where stars are born amid swirling dust and gas, lies a young star HBC 672, also known as the Bat Shadow. This star is famous for appearing to have shadowy wings extending out from it, and now scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope have spotted something curious: These wings appear to be flapping. Astronomers first observed the shadow of HBC 672 in 2018, and theorized the star has a planet-forming disk around it which, although not observed directly, casts a shadow onto a cloud behind it. And now, seeing this shadow move, they think that it could be caused by a planet passing through the disk and warping it, which in turn warps the shadow. “You have a star that is surrounded by a disc, and the disc is not like Saturn’s rings — it’s not flat. It’s puffed up,” lead author Klaus Pontoppidan explained in a statement. “And so that means that the light from the star, if it goes straight up, can continue straight up — it’s not blocked by anything. But if it tries to go along the plane of the disc, it doesn’t get out, and it casts a shadow.” Even though the disk itself is too small and far away to be seen by Hubble, the researchers believe that it is saddle-shaped, which would explain the apparent movement of the shadow. “If there were just a simple bump in the disk, we’d expect both sides of the shadow to tilt in opposite directions, like airplane wings during a turn,” team member Colette Salyk said in the statement. The shadow is absolutely massive, at around 200 times the diameter of our solar system. In fact, it’s so large that it takes around 45 days for light from the star to travel to its edge. The findings will be published in the Astrophysical Journal. An STS-125 crew member aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this image of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on May 19, 2009. NASA The beloved Hubble Space Telescope will soon be changing the way it operates by limiting the speed at which it can target new objects in order to preserve its lifespan for as long as possible. Tomorrow, April 24, marks the 34th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope. For more than three decades, this venerable old telescope has been peering out into space, observing stars, galaxies, and nebulae to understand more about the universe we live in. To celebrate this birthday, Hubble scientists have shared a new image showing the striking Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, which is located 3,400 light-years away. In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA’s legendary Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. NASA, ESA, STScI A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a galaxy partly hidden by a huge cloud of dust known as a dark nebula. The galaxy IC 4633 still shines brightly and beautifully in the main part of the image, but to the bottom right, you can see dark smudges of dust that are blocking the light from this part of the galaxy. Taken using Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument, the image also incorporates data from the DECam instrument on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, which is located in Chile. By bringing together data from the space-based Hubble and the ground-based DECam, astronomers can get a better look at this galaxy, located 100 million light-years away, and the dark dust partially obscuring it.