Sometimes individual stars in our galaxy are seen to be zipping through space. The winds from the stars ram into the interstellar medium -- the material between the stars in our galaxy -- and a bow shock is formed. In general they have the appearance of a bow wave from a boat, but the exact shapes depend on the interface between the star's wind and the interstellar material.
Beautiful images of these bow shocks can be seen in data from the Spitzer Space Telescope in survey observations.
Join Tony Darnell and Carol Christian during Afternoon Astronomy Coffee as they discuss with Matt Povich (California State Polytechnic University) and William Chick (University of Wyoming) how these bow shocks are made, how they discovered them and why the stars are zipping around in space.
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