NGC 7129 is a reflection nebula4 and stellar nursery approximately ten light years across. This interesting and colorful celestial object is located in the constellation Cepheus (named for the king from Greek mythology) and lies approximately 3,330 light years from Earth.1,2 The nebula is host to over 100 very young protostars, averaging only about a million years old. In the false color Spitzer image2 the nebular complex resembles a celestial rose bud. The green stem in the image contains the youngest newborn stars and the pink rosebud is an area of hot dust and gas surrounding these adolescent stars.1,2 Our own sun and solar system are believed to have been born from a nursery similar to NGC 7129.1
Located in the upper right and lower left of the above image are red blobs. These blobs are the result of a combination of stellar material (dust and gas) both falling into and being expelled out of new born protostars and their surrounding accretion disks - a phenomenon known as bipolar outflow.3 This outflow is referred to as a jet, and observations of NGC 7129 show the results of such jets in the aforementioned red blobs. Astronomers have classified these features as Herbig-Haro Objects.1,3 Until relatively recently these objects were believed to be rare; however, in recent years, hundreds more Herbig-Haro Objects have been observed in stellar nurseries such as NGC 71293.