Webb celebrates the first year of science with a close-up of the birth of sun-like stars

“In just one year, the James Webb Space Telescope has transformed humanity’s view of the universe, looking at clouds of dust and seeing light from far corners of the cosmos for the first time. Every new image is a new discovery, allowing scientists to all over the world asking and answering questions they could never have dreamed of before.” “Webb is an investment in American innovation, but also a scientific achievement made possible by international NASA partners who share a dynamic spirit to push the boundaries of what is known to be possible. Thousands of passionate engineers, scientists, and leaders have dedicated their lives to this mission, and their efforts will continue to improve our understanding of the origins of the universe — and our place in it.”

A new Webb image released today shows the star forming region closest to us. Its proximity to 390 light-years allows for a very detailed close-up, with no prominent stars visible in the intervening space.

“On its one-year anniversary, the James Webb Space Telescope has truly fulfilled its promise of revealing the universe, providing humanity with an incredible treasure trove of images and science that will last for decades,” said Nicola Fox, NASA’s assistant director of science missions. Direction to Washington. “An engineering marvel built by the world’s greatest scientists and engineers, Webb has given us a more complex understanding of the galaxies, stars and atmospheres of planets outside our solar system than ever before, laying the foundation for NASA leading the world into a new era of scientific discovery and the search for habitable worlds.” .

Webb’s image shows a region containing about 50 young stars, all similar in mass to the Sun, or smaller. The darker regions are the most dense, where dense cocoons of dust are still forming protostars. Huge dipole jets of molecular hydrogen, shown in red, dominate the image, appearing horizontally in the upper third and vertically on the right. These occur when a star bursts for the first time through its newborn envelope of cosmic dust, sending a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn baby first extending its arms out into the world. In contrast, the star S1 has carved out a cavern of glowing dust in the lower half of the image. It is the only star in the image that is much larger than the Sun.

“A Webb image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to see a very short period of the stellar life cycle with new clarity. Our Sun went through a phase like this a long time ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star’s story. Webb’s project scientist at the Telescope Science Institute said Klaus Pontopidan, who worked as a Webb project scientist. Space Center in Baltimore, Maryland, from before the telescope’s launch and through its first year of operation.

Some of the stars in the image display telltale shadows that indicate protoplanetary disks – possible future planetary systems in the making.

A whole year, across the sky

From his first deep pictorial, revealing of President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Nelson live in the White House, Webb has made good on his promise to show us more of the universe than ever before. However, Webb revealed more than just distant galaxies in the early universe.

said Eric Smith, associate director for research in the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters and Webb program scientist. . “Not only has Webb’s first year of science taught us new things about our universe, it has revealed that the telescope’s capabilities are beyond our expectations, which means that future discoveries will be even more amazing.” The global astronomy community has spent the past year frantically looking at Webb’s raw public data and figuring out how to work with it.

Beyond the stunning infrared images, what really excites scientists are Webb’s clear spectra — the detailed information that can be extracted from the light by the telescope’s spectroscopic instruments. Webb’s spectra confirmed the distance of some of the most distant galaxies ever observed and discovered the oldest and most distant supermassive black holes. They have determined the compositions of planets’ atmospheres (or lack thereof) in greater detail than ever before, and for the first time they have identified the types of atmospheres that can exist on rocky exoplanets. They’ve also revealed the chemical composition of stellar nurseries and protoplanetary disks, by revealing water, organic carbon-containing molecules, and more. Webb’s notes have already generated hundreds of scientific papers that answer long-standing questions and raise new questions to discuss with Webb.

The breadth of Webb’s science is also evident in his observations of the region of space we know so well – our solar system. Faint rings of gas giants appear in the dark, punctuated by moons, while Webb shows distant galaxies in the background. By comparing discoveries of water and other molecules in our solar system to those in the disks of other, much smaller planetary systems, Webb is helping piece together evidence of our origins–how Earth became the perfect home for life as we know it. he.

“With a year of science under our belt, we know just how powerful this telescope is and have delivered a year of amazing data and discoveries,” said Jane Rigby, Webb’s principal scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We’ve selected an ambitious set of observations for the second year — which builds on everything we’ve learned so far. Webb’s science mission is just getting started — and there’s more to come.”