The Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, captured in infrared by the James Webb Space Telescope
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI. Klaus Pontoppidan (STScI)
To celebrate 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 Earth’s closest star-forming region. This dazzling shot depicts the chaotic action from the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex, which sits around 400 light years away from us.
The region, captured by JWST’s infrared camera NIRCam, consists of about 50 young stars with a mass similar to or smaller than the sun.
In the image, the darkest areas represent dense clouds of dust surrounding developing protostars. The vibrant red streaks across the scene are protostellar outflows, which are powerful jets of material that shoot out during the early stages of star formation and collide with interstellar gas.
The lower half of the image is dominated by a glowing cavity of dust, created by a massive star called S1. This star is one of the few in the Rho Ophiuchi complex that is larger than the sun. It emits energetic ultraviolet light that sculpts the bubble. The yellow-orange dust consists of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are commonly found compounds in space.
If you examine the image closely, you can see the shadows cast by protoplanetary discs, indicating the potential for planets in the region in the future.
Topics:
- astronomy/
- James Webb space telescope
