James Webb recorded the birth of a star by looking at the cosmic hourglass

The James Webb Space Telescope captured the birth of a star with its infrared power and observation of an hourglass-like structure.

The protostar at the center of James Webb's new image, though hidden from our view in a dark hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust, spreads its spectacular light up and down the cloud. The dark line in the middle of this hourglass is a protoplanetary disk the size of the solar system. A dense cloud of gas and dust that could form a planet in the future.

The baby star L1527 in the star-forming region of the constellation "Taurus" still has a long way to go before becoming a full-fledged star. has it. This cosmic body is only about 100,000 years old, which is much less compared to our Sun, which is about 4.6 billion years old.

L1527 due to its age and luminosity in the far infrared spectrum by missions Like "Iras" (Infrared Astronomical Satellite), it was observed as a class 0 progenitor, i.e. the first stage of star formation.

This progenitor still gets its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen, which is a fundamental feature. It is in the stars, it does not produce. Its shape, a puffy spherical mass of hot gas with 20 to 40 percent of the Sun's mass, is currently unstable.

The blue and orange clouds in the image are huge holes that were created by the ejection of material from the protostar and their collision with the surrounding material. The nebula's fascinating colors, which are invisible to humans and can only be seen in the infrared spectrum, were revealed by James Webb's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

Blue areas are areas where the dust layer is at its thinnest. is located The thicker the dust layer, the less blue light can escape, and thus orange holes are created.

Shock waves and turbulent currents created during the star formation process prevent the formation of new stars and otherwise In this way, we saw the formation of stars throughout the nebula. But now the early star has dominated the space and attracts a lot of surrounding material.

Now with James Webb's look at this distant star, researchers believe that they can have a better understanding of the Sun's infancy and reach the solar system.

Photo: Protostar L1527 as seen by James Webb
Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI

Sources: CNN, NASA