NASA’s James Webb Captures First-Ever View Of Jets Of Gas From Newborn Stars

NASA regularly shares stunning images from our universe, leaving the space lovers mesmerised. Now, in its recent post, the American space agency gave astronomers and space enthusiasts their first view ever of jets of gas hurtling outwards from newborn stars and smashing into cosmic gas and dust at high speeds. This phenomenon was captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Sharing the image, NASA wrote this area is part of the Serpens Nebula, located 1,300 light-years from Earth.

“Astronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction. However, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born,” said principal investigator Klaus Pontoppidan of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Take a look below:

“Previously, the objects appeared as blobs or were invisible in optical wavelengths. Webb’s sensitive infrared vision was able to pierce through the thick dust, resolving the stars and their outflows,” the space agency explained.

“This area is part of the Serpens Nebula. Located 1,300 light-years from Earth, it’s only 1-2 million years old – very young in cosmic terms! It’s home to a dense cluster of newly forming stars (about 100,000 years old), seen at the centre of this image,” it added.

In the image description, NASA said that a young star-forming region is filled with wispy orange, red, and blue layers of gas and dust. The upper left corner of the image is filled with mostly orange dust, and within that orange dust, there are several small red plumes of gas that extend from the top left to the bottom right, at the same angle. The centre of the image is filled with mostly blue gas.

“At the center, there is one particularly bright star, that has an hourglass shadow above and below it. To the right of that is what looks a vertical eye-shaped crevice with a bright star at the center. The gas to the right of the crevice is a darker orange. Small points of light are sprinkled across the field, brightest sources in the field have extensive eight-pointed diffraction spikes that are characteristic of the Webb Telescope,” as per the space agency.

NASA shared the picture a few days back. Since then it has accumulated more than 415,000 likes and several comments. “I never thought the universe would have actual disco lighting,” wrote one user.

“Whoever has been doing the captions lately deserves a raise, making astronomy relatable and accessible for all of us. Thank you!” commented another. “Beautifully breathtaking,” posted someone else,” said a third Instagram user.

“Alright now that looks like someone during a #Yoga pose on all fours hands & knees with a straight back & neck arched head thrown back looking up at the heavens. Even though that is already technically the heavens unless damn the heavens are even further up their huh,” added another.