:format(jpeg):focal(4555x1505:4565x1495)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/gfrmedia/LPK5PNHUYJEVNG5JBGCCSDTZ2Y.jpg "The James Webb telescope captures the “Horsehead” nebula in unprecedented detail")
The James Webb Space Telescope has captured images of the Horsehead Nebula — a cold gas cluster about 1,300 light-years from Earth — with an unprecedented level of detail and resolution.
The observations showed part of that nebula in a completely new light, allowing it to capture all its complexity, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced this Monday, in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The “Horsehead” nebula, also known as Barnard 33, emerged from turbulent waves of dust and gas and formed from the collapse of a galactic cloud, space agencies explain, because it glows nearby. Hot star.
The gas clouds around the nebula have already dissipated, but the protruding pillar is made up of dense clumps of material that is much harder to erode, and astronomers estimate that it has about five million years left to decay.
The nebula is in a “photoacoustic” region, in which ultraviolet light from young, massive stars creates a hot, neutral gas and dust between the fully ionized gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds from which they form.
This UV radiation greatly affects the gas chemistry of these regions and acts as a very important source of heat according to the same sources.
These regions occur where the interstellar gas is dense enough to be neutral, but not dense enough to block the penetration of far-UV light from massive stars.
The light emitted by this “photodissociation” makes it a unique tool for studying the physical and chemical processes that drive the evolution of galaxies throughout the Universe, from the beginning of star formation to the present.
Because of its proximity and geometry, the Horsehead Nebula is an ideal target for astronomers to study the physical structures of such regions and the evolution of the chemical properties of gas and dust in their respective environments and the transition regions between them.
According to the space agencies involved in the James Webb Telescope, it is considered one of the best objects in the sky for studying how radiation interacts with interstellar matter.
Going forward, the researchers intend to analyze spectroscopic data obtained from the nebula to demonstrate the evolution of the physical and chemical properties of matter seen through the nebula.
1 / 10 | NASA has revealed stunning images from the James Webb Space Telescope. The James Webb Space Telescope has produced a sharp and deep infrared image of the distant universe. It's been called “the web's first deep field.” – NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
