What To Know
- This observation opens new perspectives on star formation and raises fundamental questions about the mechanisms that govern the birth of stars and planets in the Universe.
- This pioneering discovery thus opens a window on the complex processes involved in the formation of stars and planetary systems, while stimulating new questions about the dynamics of young stellar systems.
- This next phase of observations will analyze the precise chemical composition of the gas surrounding the forming stars, thus providing crucial insights into the chemical and physical processes at work within these stellar nurseries.
Space exploration continues to reveal astonishing and sometimes mysterious phenomena in our infinite cosmos. Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) captured fascinating images of twelve young stars emitting high-speed jets of gas all perfectly aligned in a common direction. This observation opens new perspectives on star formation and raises fundamental questions about the mechanisms that govern the birth of stars and planets in the Universe.
Focus on a stellar nursery
There main nebula of Serpens is a large star-forming region located in the constellation Serpens, at a distance of about 1,300 light years from Earth. In this region, conditions are favorable for the gravitational contraction of molecular gas clouds, under the influence of magnetic fields and shock waves from supernovae or other cosmic phenomena. These gas clouds then collapse to form stars and planetary systems. The Serpens Nebula is therefore particularly interesting for astronomers, because it offers a natural laboratory for studying star formation processes. As part of this study, astronomers observed the nebula with the powerful Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) of the space telescope James Webb, then identifying a dozen ofprotostellar flowsan astronomical phenomenon that has rarely been documented until now. These jets of hot, ionized gas are typically emitted by young stars in formation and play a crucial role in the process of creating planetary systems. However, what makes this discovery even more intriguing is that the almost perfect alignment of these jets in a common direction. This synchronization defies previous theoretical expectations about star formation where it is generally assumed that stars acquire a random rotation due to turbulence in molecular clouds.
A close-up image showing five of the protostellar outflows, all pointing in the same direction. The outflows appear as bright orange spots. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI)
A synchronization that raises questions
Astronomers speculate that the alignment of the flows could be influenced by the complex magnetic field that reigns within the filament of gas from which these stars formed. Initially, this magnetic field could have aligned the rotation axes of the forming stars, which would have impacted the direction of the observed protostellar jets. However, subsequent interactions with other celestial objects could slightly deflect these axes over time, explaining why such perfect alignments are rare in the observable Universe. This pioneering discovery thus opens a window on the complex processes involved in the formation of stars and planetary systems, while stimulating new questions about the dynamics of young stellar systems. The astronomers plan to deepen their understanding of the Serpens Nebula using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) instrument. This next phase of observations will analyze the precise chemical composition of the gas surrounding the forming stars, thus providing crucial insights into the chemical and physical processes at work within these stellar nurseries. Details of the study are published in The Astrophysical Journal.
