Bipolar outflows are spindle shaped streams of gas which form both as stars are born and when they die.  They are some of the most beautiful and enigmatic objects on the night sky.  Bipolar Outflows at from Stars of Different Ages and Masses  

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  The range of shapes and the mix of order and complexity in these objects is astonishing.  Below are six examples of bipolar Planetary Nebulae.  These are the penultimate stage in the life of solar-type stars. Six Planetary Nebulae

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   Narrow high speed "jets" or beams of plasma are also seen emanating from young and evolved stars. The jets of young stars are particularly impressive.  It is likely that the jets are threaded by strong magnetic fields.       Here is a full scale image of the bottom jet (HH46/47) Note the details in the image.  The jets display complex yet ordered behavior on a range of scales.

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    Integrated Digital Astronomy Numerical simulations now show as much detail as the high resolution observations.  What is the proper means for comparing two such richly textured data sets?       The figure below shows the results of a magnetohydrodynamic simulation of a plasma jet with a strong embedded magnetic field (Frank et al 1999 submitted). Shown is log density at 4 times in the simulation.  Yellow is high density, blue is moderate density, red is low density.     There are suggestive similarities between the simulation below and the image above. A detailed confrontation between model and reality, however, requires tracking the microphysics of gas in the simulation so that its appearance can be modeled as well.  In addition, an appropriate means for extracting useful information from comparisons of structure on all scales in the high resolution simulations and observations has yet to be worked out.  Developing such an approach is what is meant by Integrated Digital Astronomy.