NASA | GSFC | James Webb Space Telescope | 2018 Nov 14
Infrared Light Penetrates Dusty Cocoons to Reveal Secrets of Star Birth
Young stars, like young children, are messy eaters, swallowing most of the material falling onto them but spitting the rest out. The gas a newborn star fails to eat gets ejected outward at supersonic speeds, creating shock waves that heat the interstellar medium and cause it to glow in infrared light. NASA’s Webb telescope will examine stellar outflows and shocks to learn more about how stars like our sun form.
The formation of a star sounds like a simple process: a cloud of gas collapses in on itself, growing denser and hotter until nuclear fusion ignites and a star begins to shine. The reality is more complex and dramatic.
Swirling gas spins faster and faster, threatening to rip the still-forming star into pieces. Clumps of matter are captured within a tangle of magnetic fields and squirt outward at supersonic speeds. All of it happens within a dusty shroud that blocks visible light. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will penetrate that dusty veil and reveal new secrets of star birth.
As an interstellar gas cloud contracts, it spins more rapidly, just as a twirling ice skater does when she draws in her arms. The only way for the gas to continue moving inward is for some of the spin (known as angular momentum) to be removed.
In a process that’s still not fully understood, magnetic fields funnel some of the swirling material into twin jets that shoot outward in opposite directions. These jets travel at speeds of hundreds of miles per second and spread across light-years of space. ...
