The Orion Nebula, the ‘cradle of stars’ that gave birth to countless stars, has been uncovered by the James Webb Space Telescope.
On the 12th (local time), an international research team released the first image of the Orion Nebula captured by James Webb.
The Orion Nebula is a representative diffusion nebula and emission nebula located in the Orion belt in the constellation Orion. At a distance of 1350 light-years from Earth, the nebula is known to resemble our solar system, which formed regarding 4.5 billion years ago. Observing this nebula has been of interest because it can improve our understanding of our solar system.
The center of the Orion Nebula is a ‘scattering field’ that produces many stars, but it is surrounded by a thick layer of gas and dust, which limits observations with other space telescopes such as Hubble, which mainly use visible light. But James Webb’s infrared instruments have captured light beyond the dust layer of the Orion Nebula.
The ‘Orion band’ running from the top left to the bottom right is a wall made of high-density gas and dust. At the center is the star ‘Theta 2 Orionis A’, which can be observed with the naked eye from Earth. Right next to it is a young star in a spheroid, which is still in the dust cloud where it was born.
Hydrocarbon molecules and hydrogen molecules can also be identified as thin and abundantly curved filaments. To the right of the image, a disk of dust and gas surrounds a young star, which is once more surrounded by a cocoon of dust and gas.
This image of the Orion Nebula was released as part of the Early Release Science program. More than 100 scientists from 18 countries, including the French National Research Institute of Science (CNRS), Western University of Canada, and the University of Michigan, participated.
Professor Edwin Bergin of the international research team said: “Studying the structure shown in this image might help us understand the star birth cycle in our galaxy and beyond.”
Meanwhile, the James Webb Space Telescope is an international collaboration project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The universe is being observed using a gold mirror with a diameter of 6.5m at Lagrange 2 (L2, the point at which gravity between the Earth and the sun disappears), 1.6 million km from Earth.
Reporter Seo Hee-won (shw@etnews.com)
