JWST has caught hot stars destroying gas and dust in the Orion Nebula

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The James Webb Space Telescope has peered done the clouds of the Orion Nebula to spot stars blazing arsenic they vigor the country astir them and blast isolated molecules

Space 12 September 2022

By Leah Crane

An representation  of the Orion nebula taken by JWST

The Orion Nebula

NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/R. Colombari

If you look intimately astatine the constellation Orion, you volition spot that the prima astatine the centre of the figure’s sword isn’t a prima astatine all. It is the Orion Nebula, Earth’s nearest monolithic star-forming region. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has peeked heavy into the bosom of the nebula to uncover however monolithic stars impact the areas successful which they were born.

This representation shows 1/800th of the disposable grade of the nebula, which has a wide astir 2000 times that of the prima and contains hundreds of young, blistery stars. It was taken arsenic portion of an observing programme led by Olivier Berné astatine the Research Institute successful Astrophysics and Planetology successful France.

This programme is designed specifically to survey however stars vigor the state and particulate astir them. The process occurs astir intensely successful areas called photodissociation regions, named for the process by which aggravated starlight breaks isolated the molecules surrounding the stars.

The representation supra shows 1 specified region, successful which the agleam stars astatine the bottommost close person heated and dissociated the worldly astir them, leaving the clouds astatine the precocious left, which are conscionable distant capable to flight the astir almighty radiation. Understanding this process successful item is cardinal to studying interstellar substance successful our postulation due to the fact that it is made up of the remnants and leavings of star-forming regions similar the Orion Nebula.

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