NASA’s Hubble telescope captures rare, glittering triple-star system. Here’s what it is

A glistening triple-star system was captured by NASA'sHubble Space Telescope in space, in what can be termed a rare discovery.

In the image, the triple-star system - consisting of HP Tau, HP Tau G2, and HP Tau G3 - can be seen shining in the dark space.

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The stars present in the system are young. HP Tau is so young that it has not begun to fuse hydrogen and is only 10 million years old.

The system was captured by the Hubble Space Telescopein 1990 and since then, the scientists' understanding of the Universe has been revolutionised.

This latest image gave the scientists an example of a reflection nebula, which is located 550 light-years away in Taurus.

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Such types of nebula are filled with interstellar dust which reflects light from nearby stars and are not like emission nebula which glow on their own.

The nebula has a characteristic blue hue because of the dust's reflective properties. In the image, one can see how the young stars have carved out a cavityin the nebula.

All about the triple-starsystem

At the centre of this triple-starsystem were HP Tau, HP Tau G2 and HP Tau G3, which were young hot stars.

HP Tau is a variable star, which is called a T Tau star. These types of stars are less than 10 million years old and have been named after the first kind of such star discovered in Taurus.

The stars are usually identified by studying their optical variability and strong lines in their spectra from the chromosphere. Generally, these stars are found surrounded by a cloud of gas and dust, out of which they are formed.

HP Tau emits different amounts of light at various time stamps, however, this star generally faces regular and random fluctuations.

Scientists are still trying to understand random variations butit is possible that the stars areyoung which may be triggering slightly chaotic processes.

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The material from an accretion disk is suspected to dump material onto the star which may be causing it to flare.

Interestingly, when the Hubble Space Telescope captured this nebula, the light which was emitted and had travelled for 550 years, entered the telescope's optics.

Hubble started capturing HP Tau while investigating the protoplanetary disks. These disks are found in many young hot stars and the scientists feel they are the progenitors to planetary systems around stars.

(With inputs from agencies)