Photo: NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope / Courtesy
The James Webb Space Telescope has celebrated its first year with one of those images of its cosmic exploration that we may have grown accustomed to seeing by now, but as we zoom in on this one, it especially shows in detail. how stars similar to the one at the center of our solar system are born, with a new incomparable image.
The photo pans across a portion of the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, the closest star-forming region to Earth. The images were taken and edited to celebrate the first anniversary of the start of science operations for NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Credits go to NASA, ESA, CSA, Greg Bacon (STScI).
The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex is the closest region of star formation to Earth.
It’s a relatively small and quiet stellar nursery, but you’d never know that from just the chaotic close-up of Webb’s image.
Jets emanating from young stars crisscross the image, impacting surrounding interstellar gas and illuminating molecular hydrogen, shown in red. Some stars display the telltale shadow of a circumstellar disk, the components of future planetary systems.
The young stars at the center of many of these disks are similar in mass to the Sun or smaller.
The heaviest in this image is the star S1, which appears in the middle of a glowing cave that it is carving with its stellar winds in the lower half of the image.
This is the only star in the image that is significantly more massive than the Sun.
A whole year across the whole sky
From its first deep-field image, revealed by US President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Nelson live from the White House, Webb has made good on his promise to show us more of the universe than ever before.. However, Webb has revealed much more than distant galaxies in the early universe.
“The breadth of science explorations that Webb is capable of becomes really clear now, when we have a full year of all-sky target data,” said Eric Smith, associate director for research in the Division of Astrophysics at NASA Headquarters. and Webb Program Scientist.
Photo: Courtesy
How has the first year of the James Webb space observatory been?
The observatory launched in Christmas 2021, and scientists spent the next six months preparing the telescope for action: deploying its sunshield and honeycomb array of golden mirrors, then testing the four instruments used to observe the cosmos. .
When it was ready, the Webb embarked on its journey to peer into the depths of the universe.
Beyond the impressive infrared images, what has really excited scientists are the sharp Webb spectra: the detailed information that can be obtained from light using the spectroscopic instruments of this telescope.
Webb is helping develop clues about our own origins: how Earth became the ideal place for life as we know it.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory and is an international program run by NASA with its partners: ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
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