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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured unique, high-resolution near-infrared images that show extraordinary detail and structure in the Lynds 483 nebula, revealing the process of young star formation amidst colorful streams of gas and dust.
The image of L483 shows a striking picture of star formation. At the center of the process are two protostars surrounded by a dense disk of material. These young stars periodically eject some of their gas and dust. The material is ejected in the form of fast jets and slower streams that “wander” through space.
New emissions collide with older ones, creating complex structures of varying densities and shapes. Over time, chemical reactions occur within these collisions, leading to the formation of a variety of molecules, from carbon monoxide to methanol and other organic compounds.
Hidden stars in cosmic dust
The central protostars are located in the middle of an hourglass shape. They are so covered in dust that they occupy only a single pixel in the image. Around these stars lies an opaque horizontal disk of cool gas and dust.
Above and below this disk, where the dust becomes sparse, starlight shines through the gas, forming large, translucent orange cones.
Equally important are the dark V-shaped areas, offset 90 degrees from the orange cones. These areas appear empty, but in fact contain the densest dust. Little starlight can penetrate through them. However, Webb's sensitive NIRCam camera picks up even distant stars behind this dust as faint orange dots.
Studying stellar emissions
Webb reveals that some stellar jets have a twisted or deformed structure. The orange arc in the upper right corner is a shock front. Here, the stellar jets have slowed down due to collisions with denser material.
A little lower down, the orange color fades to pink, forming a tangled structure. These are new, incredibly fine details that have not been observed before.
In the lower half of the image, the gas and dust appear even denser. When zoomed in, tiny light purple columns can be seen. These features indicate the continuous winds of the central stars. They formed where the material is dense enough to not be blown away by the stellar wind.
The future of L483 and the legacy of research
Astronomers plan to reconstruct the history of stellar ejecta in L483. They will calculate the amount of ejected matter and study the molecules formed during the collisions. Researchers will also determine the density of each of the regions to refine star formation models.
Millions of years from now, when the star formation process is complete, each of the protostars will have a mass about the size of our Sun. Their powerful outflows will have completely cleared the area. Only a small disk of gas and dust will remain around the new stars, where planets may form in the future.
Nebula L483 was named after American astronomer Beverly T. Lindsay. In the early 1960s, she published important catalogs of “dark” and “bright” nebulae. Lindsay created these catalogs by carefully studying photographic plates from the first Palomar Observatory sky survey.
The James Webb Space Telescope continues to unravel the mysteries of the universe. This leading scientific observatory is the result of an international collaboration led by NASA with partners from the European and Canadian space agencies.
Scientists have recorded powerful gas emissions from young stars (photo) appeared first on Curiosity.
