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Webb Space Telescope Reveals Turbulent Star Nursery
Confirmed
In Short: "Known as the 'stellar nursery,' this celestial marvel lies 161,000 light-years away and represents what the European Space Agency (ESA) calls a 'turbulent cauldron of star formation,'" said the researchers.
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have captured a new view of N159, one of the richest HII complexes in the Large Magellanic Cloud, located about 161,000 light-years from Earth.
The complex, less than three million years old, contains thousands of stars at early stages of their evolution.
Researchers were able to distinguish young stars still embedded in their birth clouds from older, more evolved stellar populations.
"Eventually, these structures will melt away, leaving their completed stars behind," said the researchers.
The image reveals intricate structures carved into N159 by intense radiation and powerful stellar winds.
The western portion of N159 contains a more concentrated population of young stellar objects than the eastern region, suggesting that star formation there is at an earlier stage.
"In stellar nurseries such as this one, giant molecular clouds of cold hydrogen gas collapse under gravity, forming new stars," said Dr. Nolan Habel, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech.
"These filaments are the densest part of the nebula and currently shield new stars from harsh radiation and stellar winds — by zooming in, you can see stars as points of light embedded in these filaments and in the small pillars of orange gas that reach out into the blue bubbles," the astronomers said.
The data revealed extremely faint stars with masses below one-tenth that of the Sun.
Dark red filaments of cool molecular hydrogen weave through the scene, forming dense structures that help shield newborn stars from the harsh radiation of their massive neighbors.
The image from the telescope shows a turbulent cauldron of star formation, including massive, hot newborn stars and the surrounding ionized gases over an area of 230 light-years.
The Papillon Nebula, a bright, compact blob of ionized hydrogen, emerges as a focal point in Webb’s imagery.
What's confirmed
- This Webb shows N159, a star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has exposed a turbulent stellar nursery 3,300 light-years from Earth, revealing young stars, hidden protostars, violent outflows, and vast structures carved into clouds of gas and dust.
What's still developing
- Captured first by Hubble in 1999, it’s believed to be intimately tied to the development of massive stars.