That's no cosmic lightsaber - it's a Hubble photo of something way cooler than that
The Hubble Space Telescope returned an incredible new image, and the European Space Agency (ESA) is having a little fun comparing it to a giant lightsaber ahead the new "Star Wars" movie release.
"Bearing a striking resemblance to Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsabre in 'Star Wars Episode One,' the spectacular twin jets of material slicing across this incredible image are spewing out from a newly formed star that is obscured from view, cloaked by swirling dust and gas," ESA writes in a press release.
That's a bit of a stretch. It's fun to compare jets of light to lightsabers, but what's really going in this image is incredible on its own.
We're basically looking at the birth of a new star:
"The Force is strong with these twin jets; their effect on their environment demonstrates the true power of the Dark Side with a blast stronger than one from a fully armed and operational Death Star battle station," the press release reads.
Well, not really. The jets are just traveling fast enough to create shockwaves as they plow through nearby gas and dust, heating that material to thousands of degrees.
You can see other new stars in the background of the image - the small faint dots of light - shooting out their own jets (not lightsabers).
And we think that's just as cool as a lightsaber, if not cooler.