“A star is born”
beautiful. Also very mysterious. The James Webb Space Telescope is actually showing the universe that we have not known about and predicted only in theory.
On November 17, NASA captured the protostar L1527 IRS in a dark cloud more than 460 light-years away toward the constellation Taurus. Gas and dust surrounding the star were also captured. Infrared telescopes are specialized in observing them, and the more dust there is, the more orange or red it is, and the less dust, the more blue it is.
The James Webb Space Telescope observed protostar L1527 IRS and surrounding gas and dust. © NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, image processing: Joseph DePasquale/STScI, Alyssa Pagan/STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer/STScI
This image of the protostar L1527 was taken with the James Webb Space Telescope’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument. In the above picture, the reference compass arrows (north and east compass arrows) indicate the direction when looking at the sky from below, and reversed when looking from top to bottom.
The bar indicates the size of the celestial body, and through this, you can see that the size of the star and the celestial body is enormous. For reference, one astronomical unit (AU) is the average distance between the Earth and the Sun, approximately 150 million km. The visible light colors below the map show the filters used to collect the light. In other words, it is the color of visible light used to indicate infrared light passing through the filter. (see high resolution photos)
A baby star less than 300,000 years old
In fact, the above star was first observed by astronomers about 10 years ago, and they could not hide their excitement. The object above is actually a celestial body before being called a ‘star’ (a “protostar”), and is in a protostar state less than 300,000 years old. In other words, it is a baby star that has just started a long and long evolutionary process. Assuming that the above star lives about the life span of the sun, it is a star that is only less than a month old when compared to a human life. It is the youngest astronomical object among the stars discovered so far, and is still evolving.
Astronomers also predicted that the surroundings of the above object would evolve in the form of a protoplanetary disk through observations of dust and gases such as carbon monoxide surrounding the above object. Of course, not all stars will have protoplanetary disks. However, if protoplanetary disks exist around stars, they eventually form planets with a high probability. In particular, although the above protostar is smaller than our Sun, it is predicted that it could form a planet much larger than Jupiter due to the large amount of gas and dust around it.
The James Webb Space Telescope observed protostar L1527 IRS and surrounding gas and dust. © NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, image processing: Joseph DePasquale/STScI, Alyssa Pagan/STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer/STScI
The gas and dust in the protoplanetary system’s disk will gradually form planets, and over longer periods of time the gas will disappear, eventually evolving into a form similar to our solar system. From a stellar evolutionary point of view, the evolutionary moment of a protostar is a relatively short one, since the lifetime after the formation of the solar system is much longer. But with the human clock, eons of time still have to pass. (see high resolution photos)
In addition, while the above object alone is a very beautiful and mysterious discovery, numerous stars (appearing with an octagonal mark like the signature of the James Webb Space Telescope) and galaxies are also objects that have not been seen through previous observations.
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