See the stunning images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope has released mesmerizing images of the deepest reaches of our universe.
NASA has released a new image from the James Webb Space Telescope in honor of America’s birthday, showing a flaming hourglass as a young celestial body grows into a star.
The hourglass shape is created by a protostar, or young star, accumulating mass from its parent molecular cloud, L1527, which is located about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus.
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The space agency said a protostar, estimated to be about 100,000 years old, is at the center of the hourglass. Meanwhile, the glass of the hourglass shape is created by vast clouds of gas and dust surrounding the forming star.
L1527, pictured in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), is a molecular cloud hosting a protostar. It is located about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
A central protostar grows in the neck of the hourglass, accumulating material from a thin protoplanetary disk, which is seen edge-on as a dark line.
The image was taken using Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to show outflows in opposite directions as the protostar consumes gas and dust from the molecular cloud. According to NASA, these outflows appear as bow thrusts around the cloud. The process is responsible for creating the luminous hourglass shape in the cloud as it energizes matter, causing regions above and below the protostar to glow.
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This isn’t Webb’s first snapshot of the young star. NASA previously released an image from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera that showed more details of the protostar’s cloud and tapestry of colors.
The protostar in the dark cloud L1527, seen in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is embedded in a cloud of material that fuels its growth. (SCIENCE: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI / IMAGE PROCESSING: Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI) / NASA)
Closer to home, cameras on the International Space Station, about 200 miles above Earth, also captured some natural fireworks. Astronauts on the ISS witness some of the best views of the aurora borealis, which are created by interactions with the Earth’s magnetic field.
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