From today's featured articleHerbig–Haro objects are bright nebular patches formed when narrow jets of partially ionized gas ejected from newborn stars collide with clouds of gas and dust. Often aligned with a star's rotational axis, they are commonly found in star-forming regions. Most of them lie within a few light-years of the source. They are transient phenomena, lasting around a few tens of thousands of years. They can change visibly over just a few years, as they move rapidly away from their parent star. First observed in the late 19th century by Sherburne Wesley Burnham, Herbig–Haro objects were not recognized as distinct from other emission nebulas until the 1940s. The first astronomers to study them in detail were George Herbig and Guillermo Haro, who independently recognized that the objects were by-products of the star formation process. Although the objects emit visible wavelengths, many are hidden by dust and gas, and can only be seen at infrared wavelengths. (Full article...)
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On this daySeptember 21: International Day of Peace
Andrew II of Hungary (d. 1235) · Polyxena of Hesse-Rotenburg (b. 1706) · Florence Griffith Joyner (d. 1998)
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Dried bark strips, bark powder and dried flowers of the small tree Cinnamomum verum. Native to Sri Lanka, C. verum, also known as true cinnamon, is an evergreen of the family Lauraceae. The tree's inner bark is used to make the spice cinnamon, although most of the world's supply comes from several other Cinnamomum species. Sri Lanka produces 80 to 90 per cent of C. verum cinnamon; the tree is also cultivated commercially in the Seychelles and Madagascar. Photograph credit: Simon A. Eugster
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