2023-07-27 18:17:07
The James-Webb Space Telescope continues to provide space agencies with an impressive amount of images of the cosmos. NASA published on July 26 a photograph of two nascent stars in the Gum Nebula, forming the Herbig-Haro object HH 46/47. The quality of the data makes it possible to admire the details of these phenomena taking place several billion kilometers from the Solar System.
The James-Webb Telescope (JWST) has set its eye on star birth, a few hundred light-years from Earth. It was by aiming its instruments, capable of capturing infrared and near-infrared waves, at the Gum Nebula that the JWST managed to capture the “first” moments of a pair of stars in the remains of a supernova. . Their shine stands out clearly on a photo released by NASA July 26. This Herbig-Haro object, named HH 46/47, is located 1,470 light-years away. The powerful orange flicker is the birthpoint of at least two stars, according to the US space agency. Two cones darken the outlines of the stars: this is the shadow caused by thick clouds of gas and dust, aggregating to form the different strata of the stars.
The surroundings of HH 46/47 are dressed in shimmering colors, varying from orange, to red, to blue. These jets are ejections of matter emanating from stars in formation, degassing and rejecting superfluous dust into the cosmic vacuum. The blue mists are the most recent ejections, spanning tens and hundreds of astronomical units.
See the invisible billions of miles away
NASA brings some details to the view offered by the James-Webb. If the Gum Nebula can be observed from Earth with sufficiently powerful telescopes, the blue regions visible in the photo would not be visible to the human eye. Fortunately for astronomers and space photography enthusiasts, the JWST deploys a myriad of instruments capable of receiving infrared electromagnetic waves, outside the visible spectrum. I’Integrated Science Instrument Module (Isim) leverages the capabilities of NIRCam, NIRSpec, Niriss and Miri, accumulating images by varying the exposure time. The space telescope will however have to wait a few million years before clearly distinguishing the two stars being formed in this gigantic stellar nursery, when the surrounding gases have completely dissipated.
The Herbig-Haro objects, including our HH 46/47, are particularly brilliant phenomena. Jets of ionized gas caused by the violent events occurring during star formation are particularly interesting for astrophysicists to study. They are one of the variants of star birth. For amateur astronomers, it is unfortunately impossible to see the object HH 46/47. But photography enthusiasts can already console themselves: the Gum Nebula is the closest to our Earth. Located in the constellation of Veils, mainly in the southern hemisphere, it appears very extensive in the night sky. But just like the Andromeda galaxy, observing it fully with the naked eye is a difficult exercise.
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