Stars are born in the arms of a cosmic tarantula… Caught on James Webb

The James Webb Space Telescope has clearly captured the space where stars are forming in the Tarantula Nebula, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) said on the 6th (local time).

The Tarantula Nebula (official name: 30 Doradus), belonging to the relatively close Large Magellanic Cloud, regarding 161,000 light-years from Earth, is so called because its overall appearance resembles a tarantula habitat.

The ‘Cradle of Stars’, which was invisible because of the intricately tangled dust like a spider’s web, was revealed through the new eyes of mankind.

Unlike the Hubble Space Telescope, which focuses on visible light, James Webb uses longer-wavelength infrared light to see beyond gas and dust.

The operation team observed the Tarantula Nebula using three infrared instruments aboard the James Webb Space Telescope.

First, the area around the area shown in red in the picture taken with the Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) is the place where stars will soon be born. In the center, the newly born stars are shining blue. The dense surrounding area resists stellar wind erosion and forms pillars. Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRSpec) has identified young stars trapped in the column.

Mid-infrared equipment (MIRI), which has a longer wavelength than near-infrared, focused on the star forming region and picked out only cold gas and dust. The small dots in the picture are protostars, an early stage in star formation. Hydrocarbons visible in blue and purple illuminate the surface of the dust cloud.

Scientists have long been paying attention to the Tarantula Nebula. Because the cobweb-delicate filaments of dust are helping to study the structure and composition of cosmic gases and dust.

Another reason of interest is that the chemical composition is similar to the region where stars were intensively formed at ‘Cosmic Noon’, a time when the universe was only billions of years old. Contrasting the Tarantula Nebula with real cosmic noon is expected to give us a better understanding of the evolution of the universe.

Reporter Seo Hee-won ([e-mail])