The alignment of these outflows, previously unseen, provides a remarkable view of the early stages of star formation.Webb’s advanced infrared capabilities allowed it to penetrate dense cosmic dust, revealing these details with exceptional clarity and offering new insights into the dynamic processes of stellar birth.
A new era in astronomy
The latest image, taken with Webb’s near-infrared camera, reveals intricate details of the Serpens Nebula, a dense region of star formation located just 1,300 light-years from Earth. This region contains about 100,000 stars within a span of just a few tens of light-years.
The telescope’s ability to pierce through thick dust has allowed astronomers to observe features that were previously invisible or appeared as mere blobs in optical wavelengths. The red and orange streaks captured in the image are not just visually stunning; they are a scientific breakthrough that deepens our understanding of how stars are born.
Understanding protostellar outflows
These streaks, known as protostellar outflows, are a natural byproduct of star formation. As gas within the nebula collapses and spins, conserving angular momentum, it begins to form new stars. However, for the gas to fully coalesce into a star, some of this momentum must be lost. This is achieved through jets of gas that are ejected from the poles of the forming star at incredible speeds, reaching tens of kilometers per second.
As these powerful jets interact with the surrounding material, they create visible shockwaves of ionized, molecular, and atomic gas. While protostellar outflows have been observed before, what makes this discovery unique is the near-perfect alignment of these jets, something rarely seen in star-forming regions.
A remarkable discovery
The image captured by Webb reveals a series of neatly aligned red and orange streaks, representing molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide. Their precise alignment over the nebula’s bluish clouds of starlight is an extraordinary discovery. This finding supports astronomers’ assumption that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction.
Joel Green, a researcher at the Space Telescope Science Institute and lead author of the study published in the Astrophysical Journal, explained, “The significance of this finding lies in the fact that almost all the outflows are aligned within a narrow range, which is extremely unlikely to occur by chance. This suggests that stars are forming together as they fragment from a larger collapsing cloud, rather than individually.”
Green and his team identified 12 pairs of jets in the northwest region of the Serpens Nebula, all aligned with the Serpens filament—a section of the nebula that is a hotbed for star formation. These findings confirm that stars, including those similar to our Sun, often form in clusters, born from the collapse of molecular clouds.
Exploring a stellar nursery
The Serpens Nebula serves as an extraordinary interstellar laboratory for studying star formation. The jets captured in this image are relatively young, between 200 and 1,400 years old, while the entire nebula itself is only 1 to 2 million years old. Green hopes that by studying regions like Serpens, astronomers can gain a clearer understanding of the processes that lead to the formation of stars like our own.
In addition to the protostellar outflows, the nebula also contains several disk shadows—dark regions created by disks of gas and dust swirling around young stars. These disks are the early stages of planet formation, and one such shadow, known as the “Bat Shadow,” was famously detected by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2018.
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Dr. Thomas Hughes is a UK-based scientist and science communicator who makes complex topics accessible to readers. His articles explore breakthroughs in various scientific disciplines, from space exploration to cutting-edge research.
