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Nature 452, 945-946 (24 April 2008) | doi:10.1038/452945b; Published online 23 April 2008

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Astrophysics: Exhaust inspection

David L. Meier1

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What do you see if you peer into the exhaust of a jet engine larger than our Solar System? Only astronomers with the largest radio telescopes can see the full picture — and definitive observations are beginning to filter through.

Cosmic jets — enormously energetic, highly directed beams of charged particles — can be ejected by stars as they form1, as they die2, 3, 4, and even, in certain instances, as they are reborn, rekindled by the accretion of surrounding gas5, 6. The energy carried away by a jet can help to bring a dying massive star to explosion in a supernova, or disperse a less massive one as a planetary nebula.

  1. David L. Meier is at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
    Email: dlm@sgra.jpl.nasa.gov

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