Stellar show! NASA's James Webb Telescope captures birth of new suns far away from Earth

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured the image of a stunning nebula far away from our Milky Way galaxy. The nebula, named N79, is 1630 light years away from our galaxy and is actively forming thousands of stars that remain virtually an unexplored territory by astronomers.

The interstellar cosmic space with yellow, orange and blue ribbons of light looks hypnotic and majestic.

Take a close look.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

N79 is said to be the younger sibling of the Tarantula Nebula, which was recently sighted by the JWST. Tarantula lies about 161,000 light years away from Earth. As per scientists, the N79 has been forming stars at twice the rate of the Tarantula Nebula which is officially named 30 Doradus.

Exploring ‘starburst’ patterns in young stellar bodies

The image of the new nebula captured by the JWST primarily focuses on three giant complexes of cold atomic gas called molecular clouds. Astronomers call this as N79 South or S1.

Inside the S1, the “starburst” pattern around the bright heart of N79 stands out, as seen in the image. This effect is created by diffraction spikes caused by the 18 pieces of JWST’s primary mirror as they collect light. These mirrors are arranged in a hexagonal pattern like a honeycomb, meaning there are six main diffraction spikes.

Also Read |Major breakthrough: World’s first successful IVF could help save nearly extinct rhino species

These spikes arise when JWST studies particularly bright and compact objects that have light emerging from a concentrated location. So when the $10 billion telescope looks at galaxies at once, even the smaller ones appear to come out of more diffused and spread out, giving the illusion that a diffraction pattern is absent.

JWST captured the N79 image using its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI), which captured the infrared light coming from the starburst as well. MIRI allows astronomers to look deep into the star-forming region.

This is why, with of help of MIRI, JWST is also able to see young stellar bodies that are still hidden in their natal womb of gas and dust. These are called ‘proto-stars’, which haven’t gathered material to fuse hydrogen to helium in their cores, which is the process of making a star.

Also Read |An 'unprecedented' pinpoint landing: Japan says its Moon landing was within 100 metres of target

An infant star that has just started this hydrogen-to-helium process can be seen as the brightest point in the midst of orange clouds of gas and dust in the JWST N97 image.

Studying regions of intense star birth like N79 with the JWST allows scientists to learn about the composition of star-birthing clouds of gas and dust in the early universe when star formation was at its most intense.

(With inputs from agencies)