James Webb captures a stunning photo of a newborn star

New photo of Herbig-Haro’s body taken by James Webb Space Telescope It shows the young star’s dramatic flows. These luminous flares are created when stellar winds blow in opposite directions from the star Newborn starsThe gas jets collide with nearby dust and gas at tremendous speed. These objects can be massive, up to several light-years in diameter, and shine brightly in the infrared wavelengths at which James Webb works.

This image shows the Herbig-Haro object HH ​​797, which is located near the star cluster IC 348, and is also located near another Herbig-Haro object recently captured by Webb: HH 211.

The image was taken using the Webb Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) instrument, which is particularly well suited to studying young stars, Webb scientists explained in an article published by the British newspaper The Guardian. launch“Infrared imaging is a powerful way to study newborn stars and their jets, because younger stars are still embedded in the gas and dust from which they form. Infrared emission from the star’s outflows penetrates the opaque gas and dust, making Herbig-Haro objects ideal for observation with Webb’s infrared-sensitive instruments.

“Molecules excited by turbulent conditions, including molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, emit infrared light that Webb can collect to visualize the structure of the outflows.” NIRCam is particularly good at observing hot molecules (thousands of degrees Celsius) that become excited result of collisions.”

This Herbig-Haro object is unusual in that scientists originally thought it was created from a single young star, like most such objects. But these detailed observations reveal that there are actually two sets of outflows, coming from a pair of stars in the centre.

In addition to the bright ripples emanating from the Herbig-Haro object in the lower half of the image, there are also thought to be more new stars being born in the upper half of the image. The bright yellow-green spot is thought to host two small protostars.

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