NASA Releases Astonishing Image Showing Birth of Stars
The James Webb Space Telescope, a joint project between the European (ESA) and Canadian (CSA) space agencies, has just celebrated its first science birthday. To commemorate the occasion, NASA released a breathtaking image of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex. The Rho Ophiuchi is the star-forming region nearest to Earth, resting only 390 light years away, and one of the most photographed areas of the sky.
On Wednesday, NASA posted the photo to their Webb Telescope account along with the message, “Cheers to our first year!”
The photo depicts a region containing about 50 young stars, each of which are similar to the Sun in mass. In the darkest sections of the photograph are still-forming protostars enveloped in a thick coating of dust. The focal point of the image is the bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, identified in red and appearing vertically on the right as well as in the upper third of the picture.
Bipolar jets occur when a star penetrates its natal envelope of cosmic dust. This results in two jets yawning through space, similar to how a baby might stretch its arms at birth. In the lower section, the S1 star has tucked itself into a glowing fortress of dust. This is the only star captured in the image which has a greater mass than the Sun.
Cheers to our first year! ????
— NASA Webb Telescope (@NASAWebb) July 12, 2023
Let’s celebrate one year of Webb science by taking a brand-new look at Sun-like stars being born, in this detailed close-up of Rho Ophiuchi, the closest-star-forming region to Earth. https://t.co/jXJgjb4mFj pic.twitter.com/yi891eVDHp
“There's so much going on in this spectacular picture, as young stars splash vibrant colors across the clouds of gas and dust from which they're being born,” Mark McCaughrean, a senior advisor for science and exploration at the ESA, told BBC News.
“Much of the bright red emission comes from jets of shocked molecular gas flowing at high speed from an invisible protostar, VLA1623, a star so young that many Stone Age cave paintings pre-date it,” McCaughrean continued. “JWST is not only going to revolutionize our view of how galaxies were born in the early universe, but also how stars and planets are being made today, much closer to home in our own Milky Way.”
The JWST is on a mission lasting between five and 10 years. It was launched on December 25, 2021, though it took six months for engineers to establish an observatory and run tests on its systems. The telescope produced its first full-color picture on July 11, 2022, when President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris unveiled the premier image at the White House.