NASA's Telescope Spots a Nebula That Looks Like a Hamburger!

HH 30, the hamburger nebula

Post Author - Ellis Nolan

They say art imitates life, but this month, it seems as though life imitates “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.” February’s photo of the month from the James Webb Space Telescope depicts HH (Herbig-Haro Object) 30, a one-octillion-ton cloud of gas surrounding a fledgling star that also happens to resemble an iconic fast-food menu item.

Believe it or not, HH 30 is not the first astral occurrence to resemble food—notable others include the “Fried Egg Galaxy” and “Gomez’s Hamburger.” But how did it get to be that shape? Well, this particular outer space sandwich resides in a nebula, a large region made up of gas and cosmic dust where stars are born. In general, these regions are in a constant tug-of-war between the tendency of their own gravity to pull their forming material inward and the tendency of the gasses they contain to expand outward. If something upsets this push and pull, the nebula can collapse.

The James Webb Space Telescope

In this scenario, the gravity of the nebula “wins” the tug-of-war, causing the gasses and cosmic dust to collect and rise to extremely high temperatures, forming what is known as a “protostar,” a ball of gas and dust that is really hot but not yet achieving nuclear fusion. This protostar is what HH 30 surrounds and makes up the “patty” of the outer space burger.

The “bun” of the burger is material from HH 30 illuminated by the protostar at the center. Particularly notable about this Herbig-Haro Object is that some of the material seems to be drifting away (depicted in the bottom-left of the photo of the month)! Scientists aren’t quite sure why this is happening at the moment, but some have hypothesized that the protostar within HH 30 is actually part of a binary system with another star, which is leading the material in HH 30 astray.

Nebulae are simply fascinating environments. While the “patty” of the astral hamburger is still in its infancy, our Sun formed through the exact same process. Perhaps one day, astronauts will chow down on hamburgers in the orbit of the former HH 30. Order up!