Scientists show off ‘celestial fireworks’ for July 4
The cosmic entity is 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
(NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI via SWNS)
By Dean Murray via SWNS
Scientists have shown off celestial fireworks for the Fourth of July.
NASA says the "cosmos seems to come alive with a crackling explosion of pyrotechnics" in a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Taken with Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), the "fiery hourglass" marks the scene of a very young object in the process of becoming a star.
NASA explains: "A central protostar grows in the neck of the hourglass, accumulating material from a thin protoplanetary disk, seen edge-on as a dark line".
The protostar, a relatively young object of about 100,000 years, is still surrounded by its parent molecular cloud, or large region of gas and dust.
Webb’s previous observation of L1527, with NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), allowed us to peer into this region and revealed this molecular cloud and protostar in opaque, vibrant colours.
In this image, the areas coloured in blue, which encompass most of the hourglass, show mostly carbonaceous molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
The protostar itself and the dense blanket of dust and a mixture of gases that surround it are represented in red.
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