Science

Such perfectly-aligned outflows have never been seen before, and are highly unlikely to be the result of random chance. According to the researchers, it's likely that the group of 12 jet-spouting stars formed around the same time as each other, and along the same dense filament of gas. A powerful magnetic field defines the boundaries of this star-forming filament, and may also be responsible for directing the angle of the protostellar jets seen spewing there. Over time, this effect weakens as interactions with other objects slightly sway the spin axes of individual stars, redirecting the jets. This drift over time could explain why astronomers have never seen such perfect alignments before.