The process of star formation is a wild one, with dense clouds of gas and dust accreting into a large mass where eventually the gravity of itself collapses and heats causing a fusion reaction. We knew this long before it was ever observed in the cosmos, but now astronomers have turned the James Webb Space telescope towards what they call “stellar nurseries” and the results are truly epic.
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00:00The process of star formation is a wild one, with dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust accreting into a large mass,
00:10where eventually the gravity of itself collapses in heaps, causing a fusion reaction.
00:15Scientists knew this long before it was ever observed in the cosmos.
00:18But now astronomers have turned the James Webb Space Telescope towards what they call stellar nurseries.
00:23And it's giving us not only epic images like these,
00:26it's also furthering our understanding of star formation in general.
00:30The researchers liken the experience to taking anthropological observations of living cultures,
00:35versus finding buried archaeological relics from them long after they've gone.
00:39This image of the cosmic cliffs has revealed that it's actually a gigantic hollow structure.
00:44Inside, it hosts huge infant stars, whose extreme radiation and stellar winds have literally carved out the cave in which they currently reside.
00:51On the flip side, some stellar nurseries are extremely dense, like this one.
00:55This is what is often referred to as the dark cloud L1527, where at its center a baby or protostar is being born as we watch.
01:04The James Webb Space Telescope is also revealing how turbulent stellar births are as well, especially with the likes of this one.
01:10It shows what's called a Herbig Haro object, a structure which is created when a protostar's stellar winds send a shockwave through nearby dust and gas clouds.
01:19Just a few of the many new images from James Webb, of no doubt many, many more.
01:24Earth has also been released.
01:29Nature Mechanics
01:31Part 2
01:39Mango