End stages of dying sun to actively forming stars: James Webb telescope's recent captures
The near-infrared camera of the Webb telescope has recently sent a series of magnificent images depicting several cosmic activities. Let's find out.
The flagship James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has yet again sent a collection of mesmerising photos from the cosmos – revealing stunning details of the closest neighbour of our Milky Way galaxy to offering a glimpse into the final fate of our sun.
About 2,600 light-years from Earth lies a well-known extraterrestrial object called Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57 (M57). The Webb images reveal extricate details of the Nebula's expanding shells.
A nebula is formed after a star dies and disperses much of its material into space, resulting in the creation of vivid ring-like structure with wispy clouds. The images show how the shells of the nebula are expanding with a planet-sized very dense star, called white dwarf, situated in the centre.
The near-infrared camera (Nircam) of the JWST sent a different image to Earth of another celestial activity, contrary to the Ring Nebula. The Webb captured two stars that are in their growing stage Both stars, Herbig-Haro 46/47, could be seen buried deep inside a disc of gas and dust that they are feeding on to grow bigger. At few thousand years of age, these stars are considered to be quite young in galactic terms. Opposite to the death of our sun, Herbig-Haro 46/47 can give scientists an insight on how the daystar was formed.
In its profound exploration, the Webb telescope also found an Earth-like planet in the making with traces of water vapour. The planetary system PDS 70 is around 370 light-years away. It has two disks of gas and dust 8 billion-kilometre away from each other, and the water was found in the inner disc of the system. Some terrestrial and rocky planets are believe to be forming in the inner disk.
“We’ve seen water in other disks, but not so close in and in a system where planets are currently assembling. We couldn’t make this type of measurement before Webb,” said a senior scientist.
We live in the Milky Way galaxy, and there are claimed to be uncountable such galaxies in space. NGC 6822 is one of them, and the closest to the Milky Way. Webb telescope shared a photo of it with exceptional detail.
The green and golden colours in the image are due to gas and dust present in the galaxy, filled with dense field of stars. Scientists call this galaxy ‘metal-poor’ as it lacks elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, in other words, metals. The NGC 6822 is a representation of early galaxies, that fundamentally lack heavier elements or metals.
