This is a sparkling scene of star birth captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. What appears to be a craggy, starlit mountaintop kissed by wispy clouds is actually a cosmic dust-scape being eaten away by the blistering winds and radiation of nearby, massive, infant stars.
Called Pismis 24, this young star
cluster resides in the core of the nearby Lobster Nebula, approximately 5,500
light-years from Earth in the constellation Scorpius. Home to a vibrant stellar
nursery and one of the closest sites of massive star birth, Pismis 24 provides
rare insight into large and massive stars. Its proximity makes this region one
of the best places to explore the properties of hot young stars and how they
evolve.
At the heart of this glittering
cluster is the brilliant Pismis 24-1. It is at the center of a clump of stars
above the jagged orange peaks, and the tallest spire is pointing directly
toward it. Pismis 24-1 appears as a gigantic single star, and it was once
thought to be the most massive known star. Scientists have since learned that
it is composed of at least two stars, though they cannot be resolved in this
image. At 74 and 66 solar masses, respectively, the two known stars are still
among the most massive and luminous stars ever seen.
Image A: Pismis 24 (NIRCam Image)
Webb captured this sparkling scene of star birth in
Pismis 24, a young star cluster about 5,500 light-years from Earth in the
constellation Scorpius. This region is one of the best places to explore the
properties of hot young stars and how they evolve.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Image Processing: A.
Pagan (STScI)
Captured in infrared light by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), this
image reveals thousands of jewel-like stars of varying sizes and colors. The
largest and most brilliant ones with the six-point diffraction spikes are the
most massive stars in the cluster. Hundreds to thousands of smaller members of
the cluster appear as white, yellow, and red, depending on their stellar type
and the amount of dust enshrouding them. Webb also shows us tens of thousands
of stars behind the cluster that are part of the Milky Way galaxy.
Super-hot, infant stars –some
almost 8 times the temperature of the Sun – blast out scorching radiation and
punishing winds that are sculpting a cavity into the wall of the star-forming
nebula. That nebula extends far beyond NIRCam’s field of view. Only small
portions of it are visible at the bottom and top right of the image. Streamers
of hot, ionized gas flow off the ridges of the nebula, and wispy veils of gas
and dust, illuminated by starlight, float around its towering peaks.
Dramatic spires jut from the
glowing wall of gas, resisting the relentless radiation and winds. They are
like fingers pointing toward the hot, young stars that have sculpted them. The
fierce forces shaping and compressing these spires cause new stars to form
within them. The tallest spire spans about 5.4 light-years from its tip to the
bottom of the image. More than 200 of our solar systems out to Neptune’s orbit
could fit into the width its tip, which is 0.14 lightyears.
In this image, the color cyan
indicates hot or ionized hydrogen gas being heated up by the massive young
stars. Dust molecules similar to smoke here on Earth are represented in orange.
Red signifies cooler, denser molecular hydrogen. The darker the red, the denser
the gas. Black denotes the densest gas, which is not emitting light. The wispy
white features are dust and gas that are scattering starlight.
Video A: Expedition to Star Cluster Pismis 24
This scientific visualization takes viewers on a
journey to a glittering young star cluster called Pismis 24. NASA’s James Webb
Space Telescope captured this fantastical scene in the heart of the Lobster
Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI),
Christian Nieves (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Script
Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers (STScI); Music:
Christian Nieves (STScI); Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg
Bacon (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA
Video B: Zoom to Pismis 24
This scientific visualization takes viewers on a
journey to a glittering young star cluster called Pismis 24. NASA’s James Webb
Space Telescope captured this fantastical scene in the heart of the Lobster
Nebula, approximately 5,500 light-years from Earth.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI),
Christian Nieves (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Script
Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers (STScI); Music:
Christian Nieves (STScI); Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg
Bacon (STScI); Acknowledgment: VISTA
Video B: Zoom to Pismis 24
This zoom-in video shows the location of the
young star cluster Pismis 24 on the sky. It begins with a ground-based photo of
the constellation Scorpius by the late astrophotographer Akira Fujii. The
sequence closes in on the Lobster Nebula, using views from the Digitized Sky
Survey. As the video homes in on a select portion, it fades to a VISTA image in
infrared light. The zoom continues in to the region around Pismis 24, where it
transitions to the stunning image captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
in near-infrared light.
Video: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Alyssa Pagan (STScI); Narration: Frank Summers
(STScI); Script Writer: Frank Summers (STScI); Music: Christian Nieves (STScI);
Audio: Danielle Kirshenblat (STScI); Producer: Greg Bacon (STScI);
Acknowledgment: VISTA, Akira Fujii, DSS
The James Webb Space Telescope is
the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our
solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing
the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb
is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space
Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
To learn more about Webb, visit: https://science.nasa.gov/webb
Source: Glittering Glimpse of Star Birth From NASA’s Webb Telescope - NASA Science
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