Young Stars in Early Stages of Formation Revealed by NASA Webb (Cosmic Cliffs NGC 3324)
You must remember this image. This beautiful image of NGC 3324 taken by James Webb Space Telescope, released by NASA on July 12, reveals previously unseen regions of star birth for the first time.
This landscape of 'mountains' and 'valleys' surrounded by bright stars is actually the edge of a nearby young star-formation region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula.
What appear to be jagged mountains are actually the edge of a vast, gaseous cavity within star cluster NGC 3324. The tallest 'peaks' in this image are about 7 light-years high.
Emerging stellar nurseries and individual stars are hidden in visible-light images. Blistering, ultraviolet radiation from young stars is slowly eroding the wall of the nebula and carving it away.
The 'steam' rising from the celestial 'mountains' is actually hot, ionized gas and hot dust moving away from the nebula due to continuous radiation.
The Cosmic Cliffs, a region at the edge of a massive, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, has long intrigued astronomers as a hotbed for star formation.
This new image of Cosmic Cliffs from NIRCam from James Webb Telescope reveals dozens of previously hidden jets and outflows of young stars.
This image separates several wavelengths of light from the first image revealed on July 12, highlighting molecular hydrogen, a key ingredient for star formation.
Get a closer look at the ejection jets and outflows of matter from young stars in Cosmic Cliffs. These ejections heat the surrounding hydrogen gas (molecular hydrogen), causing it to emit light.
Webb's observations revealed a gallery of objects ranging from tiny fountains to bustling behemoths that extend light-years from the forming stars.
Young stars collect material from the gas and dust that surround them, most expelling a fraction of that material again from their polar regions in jets and outflows.
Webb's observations show that ejections in the form of jets and outflows of matter heat the surrounding hydrogen gas (H2, or molecular hydrogen), causing it to emit light.
Stars in this early stage of development are hidden inside clouds of dust and gas, and are visible only in infrared light and with high resolution instruments.
Many of these protostars are on their way to becoming low-mass stars like our Sun. Webb gives us a snapshot in time to see how much star formation is happening in this specific corner of the universe.
The discovery could help us investigate how stars like our Sun form, as well as how radiation from nearby massive stars can influence the evolution of planets.
Located approximately 7,600 light-years away, NGC 3324 is located in the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula (NGC 3372), which resides in the constellation Carina.