Cosmic Telescope James Webb has been surprising us for months with previously unattainable photographs of distant galaxies and nebulae located in the Milky Way. This time, the Webb scientists targeted an exceptionally young protostar that hadn’t yet begun to emit visible light.
“The Burning Hourglass” pictured with Webb. This is the birth of a protostar
This object – designated L1527 – was captured in the near infrared (using the NIRCam camera). Being able to observe in this light was crucial because the unusual clouds shown in Webb’s image are only visible in infrared light. L1527 is located in the star-forming region of the constellation bull.
Clouds gas they resemble in the photograph a cosmic hourglass, and at its center is the mentioned protostar. The researchers calculated that L1527 only formed about 100,000 years ago. years ago, classifying it as a protostar class 0 – we are therefore dealing with the first phase of the star formation process. Thus, Webb captured an exceptionally short (on the scale of the entire life of a star) evolutionary period.
This object continues to gravitationally collect surrounding matter, increasing its mass. This causes the core of the protostar to contract more and more under the gravitational pressure of the fresh matter. It will continue to do so until hydrogen fusion reactions start occurring in the core. Then the newly formed star will begin to emit visible light.
For now we can only see it thanks to the infrared emitted by the shrinkage. Calculations indicate that the future star currently has 20 to 40 percent. mass of the Sun and – although it already resembles a sphere – has not yet taken its final shape.
What is not visible in Webb’s photo is the accretion disk in the immediate vicinity of L1527 (only the shadow of the disk can be seen in the image, which is the size of the entire solar system). The material collected by the star from the cloud circulates in the disk, gradually falling into the core (this process is called accretion, hence the name accretion disk). The whole process affects the characteristic hourglass-like appearance of the entire molecular cloud, which is “sucked” into the accretion disk and then into the nucleus of the protostar.
The whole process causes the future star to rise in temperature. When the kernel reaches temperature necessary for the thermonuclear reaction to occur, L1527 will become a full-fledged star. The rest of the matter will turn into a protoplanetary disk, in which the planets of the future star could be born. The scientists point out that Webb’s photo allows for the first time to explain how planetary systems like ours form so vividly.
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