By Scott Stenholm - Editorial Producer, Larry King Now
On the same day when audiences around the world began to line up for Stars Wars: The Force Awakens, a movie that could be the biggest in cinematic history, NASA is reporting an epic find. They have discovered what they say is a newly formed star that is shooting out twin jets of superheated gas that escapes along the star's spin axis. "Intertwined by magnetic fields, the bipolar jets blast into space at over 100,000 mph," the space agency said Thursday.
Unlike the new Star Wars, though, this 'force' is not in a galaxy far, far away but in our own cosmic backyard. "It’s inside a turbulent birthing ground for new stars known as the Orion B molecular cloud complex, located 1,350 light-years away," NASA added. The photo was taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which is in orbit around the Earth.
This discovery comes on the heels of the news that NASA's budget next year will be it's biggest in a decade -- to the tune of $19.3 billion. This is an increase of more than $1.3 billion over what they received in 2015 and $700 million more than the funding requested by the Obama administration.
It's an exciting time for NASA. Astronaut Scott Kelly is past the half-way point in his year-long mission aboard the International Space Station (watch the video below), there are plans to look for signs of life on Jupiter's moon, they recently released the clearest images of Pluto seen to date and last summer they announced the discovery of an Earth-like planet, Kepler-254b.
Our galaxy's 'Lightsaber' (Photo: NASA/ESA)
Watch below Larry King Now's recent special edition episode where Larry talks with astronaut Scott Kelly aboard the International Space Station 250 miles above Earth about life in space, a manned-mission to Mars and Breaking Bad! We also talk to two NASA scientists about new exoplanet discoveries and they give us their expert opinions on whether intelligent life exists outside of Earth.
Be sure to catch new episodes of Larry King Now every Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays on demand for free here on Ora.TV and Hulu.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC, its affiliates, or its employees.
