DG Tau
DG Tau

A young star, DG Tau, is located about 450 light years from Earth. Material can fall onto such a developing star, known as a “protostar,” from a surrounding disk. The interaction between this rotating disk and the nascent star leads to the narrowing of material into jets that blast away from the magnetic poles of the would-be star. These stellar jets, detected in X-rays by Chandra, generate shock waves similar to those produced by supersonic jets. DG Tau has about the same mass as the Sun, but is much younger with an age of about one million years, rather than about 4.5 billion years. This three-dimensional (3D) visualization is based on data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. While unable to fly to such a distant object and zoom around it, astronomers can use such data to learn about the geometry, velocity, and other physical properties of the cosmic source. Select the 3D printer of your choice to make your own DG Tau system. For our 3D-printed example one color of PLA filament was used.

3D Printing

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