New NASA images capture birth of a star
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to stun with its images of the universe following the release of an image showing a “fiery hourglass” housing a newborn star.
The image of the protostar (a young star that is still unstable and cocooned in a cloud of dust and gas) has offered scientists insight into what stars might look like “in their infancy”.
With the star located in the dark cloud L1527 and only visible in infrared light, the image was captured using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).
The protostar itself is hidden from view within the “neck” of the hourglass shape.
"An edge-on proto-planetary disk is seen as a dark line across the middle of the neck," NASA said in a release.
"Light from the protostar leaks above and below this disk, illuminating cavities within the surrounding gas and dust."
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured a photo of a young star using its infrared camera. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)
Blue and orange clouds forming above, below and around the protostar that form the hourglass represent empty spaces created as material shoots away from the protostar and collides with surrounding matter, with the colours being caused by layers of dust between the camera and the clouds.
The thicker the dust, the more orange the clouds appear, since blue light is unable to escape and be perceived by our eyes.
While it may appear small, the disk in the middle of the hourglass is about the size of our solar system.
According to NASA, the protostar is relatively young at about 100,000 years old and considered a class 0 protostar, “the earliest stage of star formation”.
‘Protostars like these, which are still cocooned in a dark cloud of dust and gas, have a long way to go before they become full-fledged stars,” NASA said.
"L1527 doesn't generate its own energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen yet, an essential characteristic of stars.
"Its shape, while mostly spherical, is also unstable, taking the form of a small, hot and puffy clump of gas, somewhere between 20 and 40 percent the mass of our Sun."
Our universe is beautiful. @NASAWebb captured a stellar birth which is so poetically nestled in this hourglass shape. A truly stunning marker of time. pic.twitter.com/8UflbFPdid
— Shannon Stirone 💀 (@shannonmstirone) November 16, 2022
The protostar will get closer to stable nuclear fusion (the requirement to be a star) as it gathers more mass and its core compresses.
"The scene shown in this image reveals L1527 doing just that," NASA said.
"The surrounding molecular cloud is made up of dense dust and gas being drawn to the centre, where the protostar resides.
“As the material falls in, it spirals around the centre.
"This creates a dense disk of material, known as an accretion disk, which feeds material to the protostar.”
“Ultimately, this view of L1527 provides a window into what our Sun and solar system looked like in their infancy.”
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Image processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)