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LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide

This arcing, graceful structure, about half a light-year across, is a bow shock. It forms as the wind from the young star LL Orionis collides with the gas flow of the Orion Nebula. Adrift in Orion's stellar nursery, LL Orionis is still forming, producing a wind more energetic than our Sun's. As the fast stellar wind meets slower-moving gas, a shock front forms, similar to a boat's bow wave.