Saudi, British FMs discuss regional developments in phone call    Saudi Arabia unveils new skill-based system for expatriate work permits Classification for existing workers began on June 18 while July 1 set for newcomers    New Saudi embassy building inaugurated in Moscow    Nearly 17 million foreign pilgrims perform Umrah in 2024, up 101% from 2022 Makkah ranks 5th globally in number of international visitors    Saudi Arabia reaffirms dedication to achieving equitable and sustainable digital development    Over 80,000 commercial registrations issued in 2Q 2025, bringing total to 1.7 million    Elon Musk announces launch of new political party amid fallout with Trump    UK Foreign Secretary makes historic visit to Syria    Khamenei makes first public appearance since Iran–Israel war    Desperate search continues as Texas flood kills 51, including 15 children 27 girls from summer camp still missing    Riot Games responds to match-fixing allegations in VALORANT    BLAST responds to BESTIA Visa controversy ahead of CS2 Austin major    Christophe Galtier named NEOM SC head coach ahead of historic Saudi Pro League debut    Level Up Docuseries launches June 6 on Prime Video    OPEC+ further accelerates oil output hike by 548,000 bpd in August    Saudi Arabia tops global ICT Development Index for 2025    Michael Madsen, actor of 'Kill Bill' and 'Reservoir Dogs' fame, dead at 67    BTS are back: K-pop band confirm new album and tour    Michelin Guide launches in Saudi Arabia with phased rollout in 2025    'How fragile we are': Roskilde Festival tragedy remembered 25 years on    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



James Webb telescope: Baby star launches giant jets and shocks
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 04 - 11 - 2023

Imagine you could go back in time 4.6 billion years and take a picture of our Sun just as it was being born. What would it look like?
Well, you can get a clue from this glorious new image acquired by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Towards the center of this object, called HH212, is a star coming into existence that is probably no more than 50,000 years old.
The scene would have looked much the same when our Sun was a similar age.
You can't actually see the glow from the protostar itself because it's hidden within a dense, spinning disc of gas and dust.
All you get are the pinky-red jets that it's shooting out in polar opposite directions.
HH212 is sited in Orion, close to the three brilliant stars that make up the "belt" of the mythical hunter that gives the constellation its name. The distance from Earth is about 1,300 light-years.
Physics suggests those dramatic outflows of gas are the means by which the nascent star regulates its birthing.
"As the blobby ball of gas at the center compacts down, it rotates. But if it rotates too fast, it will fly apart, so something has to get rid of the angular momentum," explained Prof Mark McCaughrean.
"We think it's jets and outflows. We think that as all the material shrinks down, magnetic fields are pulled together and then some of the material coming in through the disc gets captured on magnetic fields and is thrown out through the poles. That's why we call these structures bi-polar," the European Space Agency senior scientific advisor told BBC News.
The pinky-red color denotes the presence of molecular hydrogen. That's two hydrogen atoms bonded together (rather like the "HH" in the protostar's name).
Shockwaves are moving through the outflows, energizing them and making them glow brightly in this Webb picture, which was captured predominantly at the infrared wavelength of 2.12 microns (that's the second part of the protostar's name!).
The image of HH212 was acquired by JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam). You can't see the protostar itself because it's obscured by a dense, infalling disc of gas and dust. There are a few mature stars in the field of view, but most of the points of light are far-distant galaxies.
The structures are remarkably symmetric... except there appears to be an additional, albeit very messy bowshock on the right.
In fact, there's probably a complementary bowshock on the other side. There are certainly pinky hints of it in a wider version of this Webb image. It's just that the density of gas and dust in space in that direction is thinner and so there's less material to excite and so the shock structure appears much more diffuse.
Astronomers have been studying HH212 for 30 years, taking pictures every now and then to see how it's changed. As you might expect from the Webb super telescope, its new view is 10 times sharper than anything we've had before and will enable scientists to delve deeper into the processes that drive star formation.
A nice feature is to run together the entire image history to make a movie, to see how elements in the jet structures change over time. Repeat observations mean you can also gauge the speed at which those elements are moving - at 100km per second and more.
The HH stands for molecular hydrogen, and it's a neat fit. But it really stands for Herbig-Haro, after George Herbig and Guillermo Haro, who did the pioneering work on this type of object in the 1940s and 50s.
They would no doubt be amazed by the capabilities of JWST. It's not just the sharpness of image that Webb can achieve with its 6.5m primary mirror, it's also the breadth of color its instruments can now detect that makes the telescope so special.
"As we said, the main wavelength for looking at these things - for looking at shocked molecular hydrogen - is 2.12 microns, or roughly four times longer than the mid-visible. But for the first time, we now have a good color image of this particular object because we're able to observe it at other wavelengths that you just couldn't see from ground telescopes. And that will help us get into what's really happening in the jets," said Prof McCaughrean.
Webb was intended to be transformative in many fields of astronomy, and the study of Herbig-Haro objects has definitely benefitted. — BBC


Clic here to read the story from its source.