Highly collimated supersonic jets are observed to emerge from a wide variety 
of astrophysical objects. They are seen in young stellar objects (YSOs), 
compact objects (such as galactic black holes or microquasars, and X-ray 
binary stars), and in the nuclei of active galaxies (AGNs), and are also 
believed to be associated to gamma ray bursts. Despite their different 
physical scales (in size, velocity, and amount of energy transported), they 
have strong morphological similarities suggesting a common mechanism for 
their origin. What is this universal mechanism?  In this seminar, I will 
first discuss the currently most accepted model for jet production which is 
based on the magneto-centrifugal acceleration out off a magnetized accretion 
disk that surrounds the central source and then will show recent results 
based on observations, numerical simulations, and analytical study that 
support this model.
Less collimated supersonic outflows are also observed to emerge from very 
massive, dying hot stars, like the luminous-blue-variable stars, being Eta-
Carinae the most massive and powerful object of this class in our Galaxy. 
Its spectacular bipolar winds help to trace the historical evolution of the 
embedded hidden star system (probably a binary composed of two very massive 
stars with 150 solar masses). I will show recent two-dimensional 
hydrodynamical simulations  that are able to produce the observed structure 
and kinematics of the Eta-Carinae bipolar winds.
Finally, in the context of galaxies, quite similar phenomena occurs in 
starburst (SB) galaxies, but in a much larger scale, with the formation of 
gigantic bipolar superwinds that emerge from the galactic disk at high 
velocities into the intergalactic medium. These galaxies present high rate 
of supernova (SN) explosions which are expected to energize the gas within 
the galaxy that then can generate the superwind. We have recently 
investigated the effectiveness of this process and shown that only after 
about half lifetime of the SB galaxy the gas is able to expand and leave the 
galaxy as a superwind. Meanwhile, the retained gas may help to form new 
generations of stars or a massive black hole in the center of the galaxy.