(ORDO NEWS) — The latest image from NASA‘s James Webb Space Telescope , taken with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is truly mind-blowing.
This image shows a protostar (nascent star) about 100,000 years old, enclosed in a dark cloud of gas and dust L1527, which acts as “food” and is responsible for the growth of the future star.
The image shows how high-energy ejections from the side of the protostar have cleared cavities above and below it, the edges of which glow in orange and blue.
The upper central region is bubble-shaped and is associated with stellar “burps” or sporadic (random) ejections.
This image, according to NASA , covers a region of space comparable to the size of the solar system .
“The rudiments of a new star, a protostar, are hidden in the neck of this luminous hourglass.
Clouds of dust and gas in this region are visible only in infrared light, at wavelengths that Webb the James Webb telescope specializes in, ”the telescope’s official Twitter account says.
Star anatomy
This incredible image is not the first time that space telescopes have observed the birth of stars, but the James Webb image provides a whole new look at this phenomenon.
“The surrounding molecular cloud is composed of dense dust and gas that are attracted to the center where the protostar resides,” NASA said in a statement.
“When the material falls inward, it twists around the center, and this creates a dense disk, known as an accretion disk, that feeds the protostar.”
The protostar, feeding on material, becomes more and more massive and dense, and this process will continue until the temperature of its core rises to such an extent as to start nuclear fusion.
This fresh look at the poorly understood process of star formation is further evidence of the power of “James Webb”.
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