James Webb Telescope captures hourglass-shaped star formation

O James Webb telescope has revealed various phenomena and stars as it reaches more places in space. This last Wednesday (16) the device recorded a protostar in the shape of an hourglass, including specialists reporting that this could be another revelation in the past of our solar system. The telescope, which is almost a year old since its first use, is already considered the best equipment in space matters ever created.

Stunning star discovery

The stunning new photo that the NASA shared on Wednesday (16), shows the "fiery hourglass" shape made by a star in its birth phase. The telescope took the portrait using its near-infrared camera (NIRCam), which can capture scenes in the wavelength range of 0,6 to 5 microns — as well as being detectable in the visible spectrum.

The protostar and its dark cloud, both named L1527, are located in the star formation region of Taurus, about 460 light years from Earth. Scientists estimate that L1527 is around 100.000 years old, which is relatively young in stellar terms — this hot, bright celestial body still has a long way to go before it becomes an adult star.

An example for the purposes of closer comparison is our Sun, which in turn is about 4,6 billion years old. The researchers consider L1527 a class 0 star, which represents the early stage of star formation.

Eventually, L1527 will create its own energy through nuclear fusion of hydrogen, which is a hallmark of stars. But for now it still presents itself as an unstable, swollen bundle of gas that continues to gain mass. Again comparing the young star to our Sol, L1527 has about 20 to 40 percent of the mass of the star that warms us.

This star, although not visible in the Webb image, is situated in the center, located more in the center of the narrow, hourglass-shaped neck. The dark line running through the middle is a dense band of material called the “accretion" or "protoplanetary disk“, which formed as a result of the young star itself accumulating mass and drawing dense dust and gas towards itself.

As the accretion disk As a spiral feeds material to L1527, the protostar will gain even more mass, which will cause its core to compress and heat up. Given enough time, the temperature will increase so much that nuclear fusion could begin.

The disc is roughly the size of our solar system — but the similarities don't stop there. It's likely that some of the dust and gas will start to clump together, and these clumps could eventually become planets. As such, L1527 may one day become your own solar system.

The clouds that appear in color orange e azul in the picture captured by the telescope — the hourglass-shaped upper and lower halves — are regions where material ejected from the star collided with surrounding matter. These areas mark the limits of the cavities opened by the ejections, which scientists also call “stellar burps”, a somewhat popular way to refer and identify the phenomena.

At the top and bottom, you see light from the protostar illuminating the cavities within this object's surrounding streams of gas and dust.

Mark Clampin, Division Director of Astrophysics at NASA's Science Mission Directorate on some of the composition of this impressive star

High expandability

As the protostar sheds material, it also bumps into filaments of molecular hydrogen, preventing further new stars from forming in the region. That means the protostar can keep most of the surrounding matter to itself and doesn't need to share it.

layers of dust between Webb and the star give the regions their different colors. A thin layer of dust allows a lot of blue light to escape, creating the bluest areas. Just as a thicker layer of dust, on the other hand, does not let through as much blue light, giving rise to more orange records.

The image that drew so much attention from L1527 is just one of many records that the James Webb telescope has sent back to scientists since launching in December 2021 — almost having a birthday! A collaboration between NASA, European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), the high-tech telescope has also revealed distant galaxies, exposed Neptune's hard-to-see rings, and given us new views of old favorites like the Pillars of Creation, to name a few.

See also:

Telescope James Webb capture new detailed images of Netuno.

Pig iron: NASA e Smithsonian Magazine.