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Nasa is pretty excited about this Star Wars-style space 'lightsaber'

The space agency claims to have spotted a massive lightsaber shooting through the Milky Way.

TWO RAYS OF light shoot out from a newborn star, piercing space at over 100,000 miles an hour.

It sounds like a scene from Star Wars, as Nasa couldn’t resist pointing out during the week when it cleverly released these photos to coincide with the latest installment of the film series.

hs-2015-42-a-large_web The two lightsaber-like streams crossing this image are jets of energised gas, ejected from the poles of a young star. ESA / Hubble/NASA ESA / Hubble/NASA / Hubble/NASA

“Perfectly timed for the release of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, the Nasa/ESA Hubble Space telescope has imaged a cosmic double-bladed lightsaber,” the space agency said in a statement.

In the centre of the image, partially obscured by a dark Jedi-like cloak of dust, an adolescent star shoots twin jets out into space, demonstrating the fearsome forces of the universe.

image The rays of light are spewing out from a newly-formed star obscured from view, cloaked by swirling dust and gas. ESA / Hubble/NASA ESA / Hubble/NASA / Hubble/NASA

The lightsaber lies not in a galaxy far, far away, but within our own, the Milky Way, in a turbulent breeding ground for new stars over 1,350 light years away.

And it has a blast “stronger than one from a fully armed and operational Death Star battle station”, Nasa said.

HH 24 (ground-based view) Around the cloaked star are smaller points of bright light: other young stars peeping through to show their own faint lightsabers. NESA / Hubble/NASA NESA / Hubble/NASA / Hubble/NASA

Impressive.

Read: The 12 most compelling scientific reasons that suggest aliens are real

Quiz: Can you tell if these photos are from Mars or Earth?

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