() — The cosmic chaos caused by a very young star was captured by the most recent image of the NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
The protostar on which the image is centered is hidden from view in the neck of a dark, hourglass-shaped cloud of gas and dust. The dark line running through the center of the neck is a protoplanetary disk, that is, dense gas and dust that could form a planet the size of our solar system in the future. Light from the protostar spreads above and below this disk, according to a press release.
The protostar has a long way to go to become a star. L1527, as the protostar and its cloud are known, is only about 100,000 years old, a relatively young celestial body compared to our sun, which is about 4.6 billion years old.
The blue and orange clouds in the image outline the cavities created when material moves away from the protostar and collides with surrounding matter, the statement said.
The nebula’s vibrant colors are only visible in infrared light detected by Webb’s Near Infrared Camera, or NIRCam. Infrared light is invisible to the naked eye, making Webb especially essential for revealing otherwise hidden aspects of the universe.
The blue areas are where the dust is finest. The thicker the layer of dust, the less blue light can escape, creating the orange-colored areas.
Protostar L1527, shown in this James Webb Space Telescope image, is embedded within an hourglass-shaped cloud of material that is fueling its growth. Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI
“Shocks and turbulence inhibit the formation of new stars, which would otherwise form throughout the cloud. As a result, the protostar dominates space, taking much of the material for itself,” according to the press release.
The protostar does not yet generate its own energy through the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, an essential characteristic of stars. Its shape, a clump of hot gas between 20% and 40% the mass of our sun, is also unstable.
The image gives us an idea of what our sun and solar system looked like in its infancy.
The Webb Space Telescope, which began sharing new perspectives on the universe in July, is an international partnership between NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
— Ashley Strickland contributed reporting.
