Image of Herbig Halo 211 from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope
ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, Tom Ray
This nascent star is jetting an extraordinary jet. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured this image of the Herbig halo object. These objects form when a young star expels powerful winds that collide with surrounding gas and dust at supersonic speeds.
The object, called Herbig Halo 211 (HH 211), is located in the constellation Perseus, about 1000 light-years from Earth. This makes this one of his closest Herbig-Haro objects that we know of. The new images are much more detailed than previous images astronomers have taken of Herbig halo objects.
This detail allowed the researchers to measure the speed of the outflow leaving the star at about 80 to 100 kilometers per second. Although this may seem fast, it is relatively slow compared to the outflow from some older, more evolved stars.
The baby star at the center of HH 211 has about 8% the mass of the Sun and is much younger. In fact, this is one of the youngest Herbig halo objects ever discovered. The wobbling of the jet suggests it may actually be a binary star, but even JWST is not powerful enough to conclusively tell the difference.
topic:
- Performer/
- james webb space telescope
