Huge Star Similar to Our Sun Fri. This Chandra image shows Zeta Orionis is a binary star system. Color contours show X-ray intensities.
Graph shows densities and temperatures of the X-ray emitting plasma.
Zeta Orionis is the very bright central object in this picture. The Horsehead Nebula is the small dark feature just below the star. In a discovery expected to upset conventional thinking about stellar physics, researchers have found plasma-trapping magnetic fields at work on a star 30 times bigger than our Sun. The finding implies that processes once thought to exist only on Sun-like stars may be common throughout the universe. The process throws huge magnetic loops of energy into space.