A NASA, the American space agency, recorded “fireworks” in the space around a protostar — celestial bodies that, in the future, end up becoming stars. The image was taken with the James Webb Space Telescope, the most up-to-date tool in space.
Named L1527 and located around 460 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Taurus, the star had its first disclosure in 2022. At around 100 thousand years old, the protostar is relatively young compared to our Sun, which is around 4.6 billion years old.
The nebula’s vibrant colors were visible only in infrared light, invisible to the human eye, detected by Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCam) in 2022. Now, MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) has also detected emission from the outflows — that is, the jets of gas and dust, emitted in opposite directions along the protostar’s axis of rotation.
The outflow of gas and dust interacts with the baby star during the consumption of material from the parent molecular cloud, which occurs during its formation. This interaction, combined with the emission of light, which is gives the impression of observing “fireworks” in the image.
The colors blue, red and white are the ones that stand out most in the photograph. According to NASA, the blue is the carbonaceous molecule, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Already the redlocated right in the center of the image, is a thick, energized layer of gases and dust that surrounds the protostar. A blank region represents a mixture of PAHs, ionized neon and dense dust — this shows that the protostar pushes away matter as it consumes material from its disk.
To achieve full formation, the protostar destroys and pushes out much of the molecular cloud as it ages and releases energetic jets. The light show, however, has a marked end: it occurs when the young star stops accumulating mass, becoming more apparent to visible light telescopes.
Also according to NASA, the telescope’s analyzes reveal how the formation of the new star affects the surrounding region and influences the interstellar medium. Other stars in Taurus even form in the same way.
This influence occurs from the formation of the protostar, which can disturb other molecular clouds. Depending on the interaction between young stars and the surrounding environment, it inhibits or promotes the creation of new stars.
The James Webb Space Telescope (also known as JWST or Webb) uses infrared technology, the instrument orbiting the Sun can obtain images of the infancy of the cosmos. Successor to the Hubble Telescope, the JWST aims to study all phases of the formation of the Universe and can follow the evolution of our Solar System.
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