Science Writing (EFE).- The James Webb Space Telescope celebrates its first year of scientific operations with a spectacular new image: a close-up of the birth of stars similar to the Sun.
To commemorate the completion of “a successful first year” of this telescope, the US space agency NASA has published the image of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex.
This shows the birth of stars “as never seen before, full of detailed, impressionistic-looking textures,” summarizes NASA in a statement.
The photo presents the closest star-forming region to us. Its proximity, 390 light years away, allows for a very detailed close-up.
The Webb image shows a region containing about 50 young stars, all of them similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller.
The darkest regions are the densest, where thick dust shrouds forming protostars.
Huge bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen, represented in red, dominate the image, appearing horizontally across the top third and vertically on the right side.
These jets occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, “launching a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn stretching its arms out into the world for the first time.”
In contrast, the star S1 has carved out a bright dust cave in the lower half of the photo. This is the only star in the snapshot that is significantly more massive than the Sun, NASA details.
“The Webb image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness with new clarity a very short period in the life cycle of stars,” explains Klaus Pontoppidan, project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland.
“Our own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star’s history,” he says.
Some stars in the image show telltale shadows that indicate protoplanetary disks: potential future planetary systems in the making.
For NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, “in just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the cosmos, observing dust clouds and seeing light from far corners of the universe for the first time.”
“Each new image is a new discovery, enabling scientists around the world to ask and answer questions they could never dream of before.”
On its Twitter account, ESA has also echoed the new image: “We are celebrating a successful year of scientific discoveries with Webb! Can you believe it’s been a year?
a year of science
Today marks one year since the first images of Webb were released to the scientific community and public opinion, on July 12, 2022.
On that occasion and in a live broadcast, snapshots of the Carina Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula and Stephan’s Quintet, a group of five galaxies, four of which interact with each other, were shown.
The first spectrographic data corresponding to the exoplanet WASP-96 b, located 1,150 light-years from us, were also released, and the day before, at an event attended by US President Joe Biden, the galaxy cluster SMACS 0732 as it was 4.6 billion years ago.
The James Webb, which was launched on December 25, 2021 and had to overcome a series of critical stages in its complex deployment, in addition to a long commissioning, is not only the largest and most advanced telescope in space, but which has also opened a new era in astronomy.
Located 1.5 million kilometers away, it focuses on the study of the early universe, the evolution of galaxies, the life cycle of stars, and the existence and composition of other worlds.
The collaboration of NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian (CSA) has made its development a reality.