In celebration of Independence Day, NASA has released an image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) showing the frenetic explosion of a young star in vibrant red, white and blue.
The cosmic fireworks come from the L1527 nebula, located 460 light-years away in the constellation Taurus.
The image, shaped like an hourglass or butterfly wings, shows a 100,000-year-old infant star pulsing with life inside a gas cloud. The star is spinning in place, consuming material around its flanks while expelling it in huge jets from either pole.
“This fiery hourglass represents a view of a very young object in the process of becoming a star,” NASA He wrote in a statement:“A central protostar is growing in the neck of the hourglass, accreting material from a thin protoplanetary disk, visible as a dark line from the edge.”
Related: James Webb Space Telescope captures images of star going supernova in dazzling cloud of dust
Star formation can take tens of millions of years – growing from billowing clouds of turbulent dust and gas into gently glowing protostars, before evolving into giant balls of plasma powered by fusion.
When stars begin to come to life, they eject material in the form of winds and jets of ionized plasma in a process known as stellar feedback.
The gas surrounding a newborn star is normally dark, but the star's outflows produce shock waves in the gas that make it glow. The blue region shows carbon molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
To capture this image, NASA used the powerful Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.
The James Webb Telescope was also able to image the protostar in the near-infrared spectrum, showing its jets in the orange hue of a stunning cosmic sunset.
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