Matter and energy are interacting in dazzling displays everywhere in space that the JWST views. Because the Webb can see through dense gas and dust that cover many objects, it can reveal more information in these interactions than any other telescope.
The JWST has discovered a young protostar that is barely 100,000 years old in a new image.
This newborn star, known as L1527, is still deeply embedded in the chemical cloud that gave rise to it. This is one of the reasons NASA (together with the ESA and CSA) constructed the JWST. The early phases of star formation are seen through the telescope’s ability to see through gas and dust.
The Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, was used to take this picture. At the center of it all is the young protostar, which is still expanding. It is receiving mass from the surrounding protoplanetary disk. The small, black horizontal line in the center of the image represents the disk.
Unlike the Sun, the protostar is not undergoing fusion since it is not a main-sequence star. Its core might include a tiny amount of deuterium fusion, but it produces energy in a different method.
Compressed and heated material is drawn closer to the star by its gravitational pull. Shockwaves produced when entering material collides with gas that already exists provide more energy. Inside the massive molecular cloud that gave rise to the star, this is the energy that illuminates the star and its surrounds.
Young protostars produce strong magnetic fields as they gain mass. These fields push matter away from the star when they are combined with the spin of the star.
Thus, a protostar that gains mass also releases some of that mass back into space in the form of eye-catching jets that emerge from the poles of the star. The filamentary formations in the materials surrounding the star are visible bow shocks produced by these jets.
The surroundings of the star contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs. These are ubiquitous chemical molecules found across the universe that might have played a role in the emergence of life. In the picture, they seem blue, even in the filamentary formations.
The newborn star is surrounded by a dense layer of gas and dust that is illuminated by the star’s radiation, as seen by the red area in the middle. There is a variety of elements in the white area between the red and the blue. In addition to other hydrocarbons and ionized gasses like neon, there are more PAHs present.
L1527 has been studied by the JWST previously. In 2022, it used its Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to observe the protostar.
This is a fleeting yet exquisite demonstration of matter and energy interacting.
The protostar will eventually expel most of the gas and dust from its surrounds with its strong outflows, leaving behind its protoplanetary disk. The star will eventually transform into a main sequence star and become visible without its gas and dust cover. The planetary system of the star will be forming by then.
Protostar creation remains a mystery, and one of the primary science objectives of JWST is star formation. Astrophysicists, for instance, are unsure of the precise mechanism and timing of fusion, which turns a protostar into a main-sequence star.
Astronomers are aware that protostars have strong magnetic fields surrounding them, but they are unsure of how these fields originate and how important a part they play in the collapse and rotation of the star.
The protostar will eventually expel most of the gas and dust from its surrounds with its strong outflows, leaving behind its protoplanetary disk. The star will eventually transform into a main sequence star and become visible without its gas and dust cover. The planetary system of the star will be forming by then.
Protostar creation remains a mystery, and one of the primary science objectives of JWST is star formation. Astrophysicists, for instance, are unsure of the precise mechanism and timing of fusion, which turns a protostar into a main-sequence star.
These queries will gradually receive responses. One picture at a time, the JWST is advancing our understanding of the young stars and the clouds of whirling gas and dust that surround them.
