Scientists took a “deep” dive into one of the first images revealed by NASA’s James Webb Telescope and were able to observe the beginning of the formation of dozens of stars, previously hidden by clouds of dust. NASA indicates that this discovery marks the beginning of a new era of research on star formation and its impact on the development of planets.
The iconic image of the Carina Nebula (or Cosmic Cliffs), a region close to the NGC 3324 star cluster, captured by the James Webb Telescope and now analyzed in detail by researchers, shows “two dozen streams of extremely young stars revealed by molecular hydrogen”. ” . According to NASAthese stars “are about to become low-mass stars like our Sun.”
“What Webb gives us is the ability to see the amount of star formation that’s going on in what may be the most iconic corner of the universe that we haven’t seen yet,” said astronomer Megan Reiter of Rice University in Houston. . Texas, who led the study, was quoted as saying in a statement.
Molecular hydrogen is “a vital ingredient” in creating new stars and “an excellent tracer of the early stages of their formation.” “As young stars collect material from the gas and dust around them, most also eject a fraction of this material out of their polar regions in jets and outflows,” explains the US space agency, adding that in the images it is possible to observe hydrogen molecules “being dragged by these jets”.
“Jumps like these are signs of the most exciting part of the star formation process. We only see them for a short period of time,” says study co-author Nathan Smith of the University of Arizona.
The James Webb Telescope, because it has “unmatched sensitivity”, allows observations of more distant regions, giving astronomers “an unprecedented view of environments that resemble the birthplace of our solar system.”
This new discovery “opens the door to what will be possible in terms of observing these populations of newborn stars in environments of the universe that have been invisible until the James Webb Space Telescope,” Reiter added. “We now know where to look next to explore the variables that are important for the formation of Sun-like stars.”
In the first image, released in July of this year, some indications of this star formation activity can be seen, but only now can everything be observed in more detail, “dissecting data from each of the different filters and analyzing each area.” . . “It’s like finding buried treasure,” says Jon Morse of the California Institute of Technology.
The James Webb Telescope was sent into space on December 25, 2021, after successive delays. It spent a six-month period calibrating its instruments in space and is now in orbit 1.5 million kilometers from Earth.
Unlike the Hubble telescope, which revolves around the Earth, the James Webb telescope is around the Sun, at a distance that is four times the distance that separates the Earth from the Moon.
The telescope and its four instruments are protected from heat and sunlight by a shield the size of a tennis court that ensures the darkness and temperature necessary (in negative degrees) to capture the dim light coming from the far reaches of the Universe.
Webb’s main mirror is 6.5 meters in diameter (4.1 meters more than Hubble’s) and is made up of 18 hexagonal segments that work as a whole, improving its sensitivity (100 times greater than Hubble’s).
James Webb’s instruments make it possible to collect images of celestial bodies and break down their light (captured in the infrared, light that is not visible to the human eye) to study the physical and chemical properties of the observed bodies.
Before being able to start its scientific work, the telescope underwent a six-month period dedicated to calibrating its instruments in space and aligning its mirrors.
Source: TSF
