New star looks like cosmic skyrocket

GREENBELT, Md., July 3 (UPI) -- The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image that resembles a cosmic skyrocket, NASA said Tuesday.

The image, described as bluish plumes of gas spewing from a new-forming star like a stream of smoke and sparks from a rocket, is the result of Herbig-Haro 110.

"Resembling a Fourth of July skyrocket, Herbig-Haro 110 is a geyser of hot gas from a newborn star that splashes up against and ricochets off the dense core of a cloud of molecular hydrogen," NASA said in a release. "Although the plumes of gas look like whiffs of smoke, they are actually billions of times less dense than the smoke from a July 4 firework."

The Hubble photo shows the integrated light from plumes, which are light-years across.

This image is a composite of data taken 2004, 2005 and 2011, NASA said.