7. What's making these gamma rays?
When a ship moves through water, its front makes a wave called a "bow shock." A similar phenomenon appears when interstellar winds collide. This 1995 image shows slow-moving gas from the Orion Nebula (it's to the lower right of the picture), meeting wind from the young star LL Ori, center. A similar wind from our sun causes auroras. By studying fine-grain images like this composite of Hubble images, astronomers hope to understand how and why so many stars are forming in this region, 1,500 light years from us.
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