The first series of images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) was released on July 12, 2022. Among them are photos of the Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula.
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Portrait of the Carina Nebula taken by JWST. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, & STScI
” data-medium-file=”https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?fit=300%2C174&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?fit=1000%2C579&ssl=1″ width=”1000″ height=”579″ alt=”Potret Nebula Carina yang diambil JWST. Kredit: NASA, ESA, CSA, & STScI” class=”wp-image-35107″ srcset=”https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?w=1000&ssl=1 1000w, https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?resize=300%2C174&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?resize=768%2C445&ssl=1 768w, https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?resize=86%2C50&ssl=1 86w, https://i0.wp.com/langitselatan.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Nebula-Carina.jpg?resize=870%2C504&ssl=1 870w” sizes=”(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px” data-recalc-dims=”1″/>
Of the five photos taken by JWST, the Carina Nebula photo was released last. But just like the other four photos, this image of the Carina Nebula also holds a myriad of stories that JWST has successfully revealed.
Carina Nebula. Located at a distance of 7,500 light years in the constellation Carina. This nebula is a massive star-forming area estimated to be 460 light-years across. The Carina Nebula is one of the nebulae that have been frequently photographed by telescopes on Earth and in space. From this photo we can learn what is happening in the nebula.
However, the images produced by JWST show incredible detail. The James Webb Space Telescope works at infrared wavelengths. That means, what JWST receives is heat emitted from objects in the Universe.
Therefore, when Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) JWST photographing the Cosmic Cliffs in the Carina constellation, we can see the forerunners of emerging stars, as well as single stars that were previously hidden in dust when photographed at visual wavelengths.
The Cosmic Cliff is the edge of a giant cavity of gas in the star formation area of NGC 3324. The ring is formed from the high-energy radiation engraving of stars that form within the nebula.
About Nebula
So, what is it nebula? The simple answer is that a nebula is a cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space.
nebula. This word comes from Latin which means fog, smoke, steam, cloud. In the universe, nebulae are clouds composed of dust, hydrogen and helium gases, and other ionized gases. The mass is very large and it is in these clouds that new stars are formed. Therefore, we know the nebula as the region of the birth of stars or the trough of the birth of stars. However, nebulae also contain material from stars that have ended their lives.
How come?
Nebulae are formed from clouds of cool interstellar gas or from exploding ejections of stellar matter. These materials then interact with each other and combine and get bigger day by day to form a dense giant cloud that is very massive and dense. Its size can reach hundreds of light years.
It is in this nebula that interacting matter combines and collapses to form new stars.
Nebulae are divided into several classes. The first is the Baur Nebula which is divided into two categories namely Emission Nebula (Emitting Nebula) and Reflection Nebula (Reflecting Nebula).
As the name implies, the emission nebula or emission nebula is a nebula that emits radiation from ionized hydrogen gas. This nebula is also known as the HII area because it is dominated by ionized hydrogen gas which is the basic material for the formation of new stars.
The following is the Reflection Nebula or Reflection Nebula. This nebula does not emit much visible light. However, this nebula remains bright because it reflects light from nearby stars.
In addition there is also the Dark Nebula. From the name we can guess that this gas and dust cloud is an opaque cloud that does not emit visible radiation and is not illuminated by stars. What happened, the light was blocked by the dust in this giant cloud. Of course if we want to uncover what is behind the dust, observations must be made at infrared wavelengths.
If the nebula was formed from a cloud of gas and dust left over from a massive stellar explosion. This gas and dust matter is ionized by the energy produced when a star explodes as a supernova. The gas and dust cloud that forms is categorized as a Supernova Remnant Nebula.
The last type is the Planetary Nebula. This nebula is formed when a low-mass star enters the final stages of its life or when a star dies. When a star enters the red giant stage, the star will eject the outer layer due to the helium flash from the inside of the star. After losing some of the material, the star will experience an increase in temperature. As a result, the emitted ultraviolet radiation then ionizes the material that has been ejected.
The nebula was first observed by the Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi in 965 and referred to the Andromeda Galaxy as a small cloud. Of course at that time it was not known that what was seen was a galaxy.
On July 4, 1054, Chinese and Arab astronomers observed the formation of the Crab Nebula (SN 1054) from an ejection of supernova material. It wasn’t until the 17th century that the nebula became better observed. Of course with the telescopes that existed at the time. In 1610, Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Pieresc discovered the Orion Nebula and in 1618, Johann Baptist Cysat also observed the same nebula. More detailed observations of the nebula were only made in 1659 by Christiaan Huygens.
This article is a collaboration between detikEdu and Langitselatan and has been published on the portal detikEdu.
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