The James Webb Space Telescope and an image of a ”fire hourglass” of a protostar

After the good news related to the complete resumption of activities for the MIRI instrument and the images of the Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte dwarf galaxy, we are once again talking about the James Webb Space Telescope with an incredible new image that recalls a “fire hourglass” in form and which is produced by a protostar which is evolving and at the same time also modifying the surrounding space, creating this evocative scene.

Once again scientists have employed the tool called NIR Cam (Near-Infrared Camera) for the near infrared. As already happened for the other images captured in the past by JWST extension we remind you that, also in this case, it is an elaboration of the collected data and therefore hypothetically a human being observing the same scene would not see exactly what can be seen in this news. Here is the main information.

The James Webb Space Telescope and the image of the protostar

There protostar image object of the JWST extension is called L1527 and is located 460 light-years from Earth. The estimated age is equal to 100 thousand years (therefore it is relatively young) and it is in class 0 due to its scarcity emissivity the far infrared. This celestial object is located where the hourglass narrows while all around is the protoplanetary disk (which is visible perpendicularly) which in the future could give rise to new planets.

Click on the image to enlarge to maximum resolution

NIR Cam of the James Webb Space Telescope highlights the emission produced by L1527 which in turn illuminates gas and dust found in the surrounding section of Space (and create the spectacular hourglass shape). The blue colouration, visible above all in the lower area, is less present while where the layers are thicker the color takes on orange tones. The filters used were F200W, F335M, F444W and F470N respectively for blue, green, red and orange. Overall, the image covers about 0.3 light-years.

JWST extension manages to highlight even the molecular hydrogen expelled from the protostar in the stages of its formation. According to the analyzes currently the mass of L1527 it varies from 20% to 40% compared to that of the Sun. Over the course of millions of years its mass will grow, the nucleus will compress, then giving rise to stable nuclear fusion reactions and becoming a real star.

To understand the dimensions of what has been observed, it is necessary to think that the disc which is located in the central section and which hides from the view of the James Webb Space Telescope there protostar it is the size of the Solar System. Studying this kind of systems allows us to understand how the evolution of the Sun and of the planets we know (including the Earth) could have been.

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