Webb Space Telescope shines light on another fascinating secret of our universe
Webb's fiery image is an edge-on protoplanetary disc, known as HH 30, around a newly formed star that is hidden by the dark disc in the middle. Astronomers are looking to this cosmic object to study how stellar dust behaves.
"Cosmic Dance" between two galaxies celebrates James Webb telescope's 2 years in service.
FILE: This video tours Arp 142, an interacting galaxy pair affectionately known as the Penguin and the Egg that lies 326 million light-years from Earth. (Video courtesy: NASA)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's latest image has all the things: jets, a swooshy tail, a hidden secret and tiny stellar dust grains.
Webb's February Picture of the Month showcases the powerful telescope's ability to capture detailed resolution of even the tiniest of cosmic events.
According to the European Space Agency, which co-manages Webb with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency, the image below is powered by what you don't see. The fiery image is an edge-on protoplanetary disc, known as HH 30, around a newly formed star hidden by the dark disc in the middle.
A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star. A dark line across the center is the disc, corresponding to the densest parts of the disc, made of opaque dust: the star is hidden in here and creates a strong glow in the center. A band going straight up is a jet, while other outflows above and below the disc, and a tail coming off to one side.
(ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Tazaki et al.)
To create the image, ESA and NASA teams used many colors to represent the different wavelengths of light. The star is hidden behind the dark line across the center of the disc, creating a strong glow moving out from the center. Meanwhile, the fuchsia and blue jets shoot up and down from the disc. Off to one side, looking a little like Sonic the Hedgehog's tail is a swoosh of blue from an outflow.
HH 30 is fascinating to astronomers because views like this help study the behavior of stellar dust grains. Astronomers have used Webb's observations and those from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study the HH 30 system.
A close-in image of a protoplanetary disc around a newly formed star. A dark line across the center is the disc, corresponding to the densest parts of the disc, made of opaque dust: the star is hidden in here and creates a strong glow in the center. A band going straight up is a jet, while other outflows above and below the disc, and a tail coming off to one side.
(ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, Tazaki et al.)
According to the ESA, these interesting dust grains are just one millionth of a meter across – about the size of a single bacterium.
Using the combined powers of space and ground-based telescope, observations show that dust grains migrate in the disc, settling in a thin layer. According to the ESA, this layer of dust is a critical step in planet formation. The dust grains combine to become pebbles, eventually becoming planets.
"In this dense region, dust grains clump together to form pebbles and eventually planets themselves," the ESA said.
The James Webb Space Telescope has been the world's premier space science observatory for nearly three years after beginning operations in 2022.