The Ophiuchus Rho cloud complex captured in infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Claus Pontoppidan (STScI)
To mark one year since the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) released its first set of cosmic images, the JWST team has released a glittering scene of the closest star-forming region to Earth. This dazzling shot depicts chaotic activity from the Rho Ophiuchus, about 400 light-years away from us.
The region, captured by JWST’s NIRCam infrared camera, is made up of about 50 young stars, each with a mass equal to or less than that of the Sun.
The darkest part of the image represents a dense cloud of dust enveloping a budding protostar, while striking scarlet droplets across the scene erupt during the protostar’s outflow, the early stages of star birth. A powerful twin jet of matter, colliding with a protostar. interstellar gas.
The lower half of the image is occupied by a glowing dust cavity, sculpted by the large star at its center, showing its slight purple hue. Called S1, it is one of the few stars in the constellation Rho Ophiuchus that is more massive than the Sun and emits high-energy ultraviolet light that forms bubbles. The yellow-orange dust is made from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, some of the most commonly found compounds on Earth. Sky.
If you zoom in a little further, the protoplanetary disk casts a characteristic shadow across the image, suggesting the possible future presence of planets in this region.
topic:
- astronomy/
- james webb space telescope
