Visualize if you could go back to 4.6 billion years ago and snap a photo of the Sun when it was initially created. How would it appear?
This magnificent new picture captured by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) gives us a clue.
At the core of HH212, there appears to be a star that is believed to be no older than 50,000 years.
It would have appeared comparable if one had seen the vista when the Sun was as young as it is now.
The protostar's glow cannot be seen as it is concealed inside a whirling disc of gas and dust that is packed densely.
You only receive the rosy-colored jets shooting away from each other in opposite directions.
HH212 is situated in the Orion constellation, near the three luminous stars that form the "belt" of the legendary hunter that provides the constellation its name. It lies about 1,300 light-years away from Earth.
Physics indicates that the immense ejections of gas are instrumental in controlling the creation of a newborn star.
"Prof Mark McCaughrean elucidated that, because of the rotation of the blobby ball of gas at its core, if it spins too quickly, it could fly apart; thus, something needs to dispose of the angular momentum,"
The European Space Agency senior scientific advisor told BBC News that in their opinion jets and outflows are responsible for the phenomenon. He then went on to explain that as the material shrinks, it causes the magnetic fields to bind together, and part of it is diverted from the disc into the magnetic fields, which will then exit through the poles. He went on to describe these structures as 'bi-polar'.
The pinky-red hue seen in this picture indicates the existence of molecular hydrogen. This is when two hydrogen atoms have bonded together, justified by the “HH” in the protostar's name. The shockwaves travelling through the outflows are invigorating them and causing them to emit this bright light observed at the infrared wavelength of 2.12 microns—the second part of the protostar's name!
The HH212 image was captured by the Near Infrared Camera of JWST. Although the protostar itself is blocked by the thick, incoming disk of gas and dust, several developed stars are present in the scene, although the majority of the glittering points are really distant galaxies.
Examine the image carefully and identify the bright knots in each of the jets located on the left and right sides. In addition, count the bowshocks in the picture - the region where the faster-moving particles collide with the slower-traveling particles.
The structures show a remarkable symmetry... apart from the additional, untidy bowshock on the right side.
It is likely there is a related bowshock on the other side. This Webb image gives us slight clues of that if we zoom out. However, the more distant space has less gas and dust therefore there is less material to kindle and thus the shock is much harder to discern.
For the past thirty years, astronomers have been documenting the changes of HH212 by periodically taking photographs. Thanks to the powerful resolution from the James Webb Space Telescope, they now have a view 10 times sharper than any prior, allowing them to investigate more deeply the processes responsible for star formation.
It is possible to assemble an entire image history into a film, allowing one to observe changes in jet structures over time. This process also allows one to measure the speed of these elements, which may reach up to 100km per second or more.
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Observe: Analyze the alterations in the architecture of HH212 since it was viewed in the year 2000
The acronym HH stands for both "molecular hydrogen" and "Herbig-Haro", which was named after George Herbig and Guillermo Haro for their pioneering work in the 1940s and 50s on this particular type of object.
No doubt, they would be astonished by the capabilities of JWST. It is not only the clarity of vision which it can acquire with its 6.5m primary mirror that makes it impressive, but also the diversity of color which its instruments can now identify that makes the telescope so remarkable.
Prof McCaughrean stated that the typical wavelength used for studying shocked molecular hydrogen is 2.12 microns, which is around four times that of mid-visible light. Now, they have the first ever color image of the related object as a result of being able to capture it at wavelengths that land-based telescopes cannot detect. Through this, we will be able to learn more about what takes place within the jets.
Webb was intended to revolutionize astronomy in a variety of ways, and investigating Herbig-Haro objects has certainly profited from this.
Gaze in awe at HH211, the cousin of HH212, located within the Perseus constellation. Surprisingly, this object is even younger than HH212, estimated to be only thousands of years old. Our own Sun began similarly!
The US, European, and Canadian space agencies are working together on JWST.
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