(PatrioticPost.com)- NASA’s James Webb Telescope observed the star-forming region inside the NGC 3324 star cluster in the Carina Nebula known as the Cosmic Cliffs, finding never-before-seen invisible areas of star birth.
The powerful Webb Telescope was able to penetrate the once impenetrable dust clouds to find energetic jets and outflows from young stars, illuminating how radiation from nearby massive stars affects the development of planets.
According to NASA, the telescope’s observations “uncovered a gallery of objects ranging from small fountains to burbling behemoths that extend light-years from the forming stars.”
The initial formation of a star is a “relatively fleeting event – just a few thousand to 10,000 years amid a multi-million-year process of space formation,” NASA said.
Megan Reiter, the leader of the study, said the Webb Telescope captured a “snapshot in time” that “opens the door for what’s going to be possible,” enabling scientists to see “populations of newborn stars in fairly typical environments of the universe” that before the Webb Telescope had been invisible.
Nathan Smith, a co-author of the study, said the jets visible are “signposts for the most exciting part” of the process of a star’s formation.
In October, the Webb Telescope provided stunning new pictures of the famed Pillars of Creation, the columns deep in space made of gas and dust that were first captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 1985.
The images from the Webb Telescope’s Near-Infrared camera, provided far more detail of the Pillars of Creation, illuminating the luminous stars in the Eagle Nebula approximately 6,500 light years from Earth.
NASA said at the time that the Webb Telescope’s view of the Pillars of Creation would allow scientists to “revamp their models of star formation by identifying far more precise counts of newly formed stars.”
According to NASA, the newly formed stars resting near the Pillars appear to glow crimson due to “energetic hydrogen molecules that result from jets and shocks.”
