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PIA16689: Artist's Impression of Pulsating Object LRLL 54361
Two young binary stars may be the source of mysterious clock-like bursts of light from an object called LRLL 54361 that lies inside the star-forming region IC 348, located 950 light-years away.
 Product Size:  934 x 935 pixels (w x h) 
 Produced By:  European Space Agency (ESA) 
 Full-Res TIFF:  PIA16689.tif (2.621 MB)
 Full-Res JPEG:  PIA16689.jpg (80 kB)  

Click on the image above to download a moderately sized image in JPEG format (possibly reduced in size from original)

Original Caption Released with Image:

This is an artist's impression of two young binary stars that may be the source of mysterious clock-like bursts of light from an object called LRLL 54361 that lies inside the star-forming region IC 348, located 950 light-years away. Astronomers propose that the flashes are due to material in a circumstellar disk suddenly being dumped onto the growing young stars and unleashing a blast of radiation each time the stars get close to each other in their orbit.

Image Credit:
NASA/ESA/JPL-Caltech

Image Addition Date:
2013-02-07