NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope captured startling images of a cosmic hourglass with a new star inside. The birth of protostar L1527 is seen in those images.
Before a star begins developing hydrogen a mass is in its center and before nucleosynthesis begins it is a protostar. Stars are formed when they heat up and attract particles and gas.
The haunting color and light of this process are shown in the space telescope’s photos.
These well-lit clouds within the Taurus star-forming region only become visible in infrared light. And the high-level Webb provides that. Since it was put in service in July never before seen images have been surfacing.
This protostar is about 100,000 years old. A young star when compared to the Earth’s sun, which is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old. And the new star is about 20% to 40% of the mass of our sun.
Webb telescope shows a cosmic hourglass
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope uses its Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), to unveil the features of a protostar within the dark cloud. These are some of the first clear pictures giving us insight into the process of how a new star develops.
