James Webb Space Telescope Spies Giant Cosmic Question Mark In Deep Space

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James Webb Space Telescope Spies Giant Cosmic Question Mark In Deep Space

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Eric Glaser

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Photograph - Digital Photography

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"James Webb Space Telescope Spies Giant Cosmic Question Mark in Deep Space"

Text Credit/Source: Space.com

Published July 28, 2023

By Brett Tingley
Editor, Space.com

When looking for answers in the cosmos, sometimes more questions appear.

The James Webb Space Telescope continues to provide answers about the earliest days of the universe, but it's also discovering more questions.

Question marks, to be precise. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) team at the European Space Agency (ESA) released an image on Wednesday (June 26) offering the most detailed look yet at two actively forming young stars located 1,470 light-years from Earth in the Vela Constellation. In the image, the stars, named Herbig-Haro 46/47, are surrounded by a disk of material that "feeds" the stars as they grow for millions of years.

But just below those stars, in the background of the stunning deep-space image, is an object resembling a giant cosmic question mark. Is the universe asking us something?

It's unclear exactly what the question mark-shaped object might be, but its color and shape give us some idea.

"It is probably a distant galaxy, or potentially interacting galaxies (their interactions may have caused the distorted question mark-shape)," representatives of the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which manages JWST's science operations, told Space.com.

According to STScI, the object's red color in the JWST image tells scientists that the object, whatever it may be, is quite distant. Even more exciting, this might be the first time astronomers have seen the cosmic question mark.

"This may be the first time we've seen this particular object," STScI added. "Additional follow-up would be required to figure out what it is with any certainty. Webb is showing us many new, distant galaxies — so there's a lot of new science to be done!"

Matt Caplan, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University, told Space.com that the object might be two galaxies merging. "The two distinct features could easily be merging galaxies in the background, with the upper part of the question mark being part of a larger galaxy getting tidally disrupted," Caplan said. "Given the color of some of the other background galaxies, this doesn't seem like the worst explanation. Despite how chaotic mergers are, double lobed objects with curvy tails extending away from them are very typical."

Caplan added that there are plenty of other possibilities, as well, but rules out a star due to the lack of the eight-pronged refraction spikes that appear to emanate outward from stars in JWST's images as a result of its mirrors.

More stunning discoveries such as this cosmic question mark are sure to come thanks to JWST's high-resolution near-infrared imaging capabilities, which allow it to peer into the far reaches of the universe, spotting galaxies as distant as 13.4 million light-years away that existed just 420 million years after the Big Bang.

Over 750 pieces of peer-reviewed scientific literature using data produced by the James Webb Space Telescope have been published in its first year of operations, according to STScI.

More Info About NASA's Original Image From Which This Is Cropped:

"Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam Image)"

Release Date: July 26, 2023

These stars have a lot of energy to let loose!

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in high-resolution near-infrared light. Look for them at the center of the red diffraction spikes. The stars are buried deeply, appearing as an orange-white splotch. They are surrounded by a disk of gas and dust that continues to add to their mass.

Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young – only a few thousand years old. Stars take millions of years to fully form. Targets like this also give researchers insight into how stars gather mass over time, potentially allowing them to model how our own Sun, a low-mass star, formed.

The two-sided orange lobes were created by earlier ejections from these stars. The stars’ more recent ejections appear in a thread-like blue, running along the angled diffraction spike that covers the orange lobes.

Actively forming stars ingest the gas and dust that immediately surrounds them in a disk (imagine an edge-on circle encasing them). When the stars “eat” too much material in too short a time, they respond by sending out two-sided jets along the opposite axis, settling down the star’s spin, and removing mass from the area. Over millennia, these ejections regulate how much mass the stars retain.

Don’t miss the delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud. This is a region of dense dust and gas, known as a nebula. Webb’s crisp near-infrared image lets us see through its gauzy layers, showing off a lot more of Herbig-Haro 46/47, while also revealing a deep range of stars and galaxies that lie far beyond it. The nebula’s edges transform into a soft orange outline, like a backward L along the right and bottom.

The blue nebula influences the shapes of the orange jets shot out by the central stars. As ejected material rams into the nebula on the lower left, it takes on wider shapes, because there is more opportunity for the jets to interact with molecules within the nebula. Its material also causes the stars’ ejections to light up.

Over millions of years, the stars in Herbig-Haro 46/47 will fully form – clearing the scene.

Take a moment to linger on the background. A profusion of extremely distant galaxies dot Webb’s view. Its composite NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image is made up of several exposures, highlighting distant galaxies and stars. Blue objects with diffraction spikes are stars, and the closer they are, the larger they appear. White-and-pink spiral galaxies sometimes appear larger than these stars, but are significantly father away. The tiniest red dots, Webb’s infrared specialty, are often the oldest, most distant galaxies.

NIRCam was built by a team at the University of Arizona and Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Technology Center.

Extended Description:

At the center is a thin horizontal orange cloud known as Herbig-Haro 46/47 that is uneven with rounded ends, and tilted from bottom left to top right. It takes up about two-thirds of the length of this angle, but is thin at the opposite angle. At its center is a set of very large red-and-pink diffraction spikes in Webb’s eight-pointed pattern. The vertical spikes extend almost to the top and bottom of the frame. The smaller, fainter diffraction spikes in the center are aligned at a true horizontal, but one set of the longer, more opaque spikes run along the orange cloud. At the middle of the diffraction spikes is a yellow-white blob, which hides two tightly orbiting stars.

The orange lobe to the left is fatter, ending in a rounder edge. Overall, this lobe is more continuous, though there’s an absence of matter toward the bottom center. Just off the edge of this lobe is a tiny red arc that curves in the opposite direction and is fully separated from the lobe.

The right lobe is thinner overall, and ends in a smaller orange semi-circle that has a faint purple outline. Just off the edge of this lobe, also fully separated, is a slightly smaller orange sponge-like blob. A thin, undulating blue line runs from the central stars through the right lobe, and a fainter one is partially covered by the red diffraction spike.

A delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud known as a nebula covers the majority of the orange lobes, but ends in a light orange line about halfway before the end of the right lobe. It extends toward the top and fades to the left, not extending beyond the left lobe. Along the right and bottom edge, the nebula appears in a soft orange outline, like a backward L.

To the bottom right of the central red star with prominent diffraction spikes are two large foreground stars that have large blue diffraction spikes. Other larger blue stars dot the scene, but their diffraction spikes are less than half or a quarter of the size. All across the image, the background is filled with tiny stars with miniature diffractions spikes, circular and spiral galaxies in whites and pinks, and tiny red dots that represent the most distant galaxies.

At the center is a thin horizontal orange cloud known as Herbig-Haro 46/47 that is uneven with rounded ends, and tilted from bottom left to top right. It takes up about two-thirds of the length of this angle, but is thin at the opposite angle. At its center is a red-and-pink star with prominent, eight-pointed diffraction spikes. It has a central yellow-white blob. The orange lobe to the left is fatter. Just off the edge is a tiny red arc that curves in the opposite direction. The right lobe is thinner, and ends in a smaller orange semi-circle that has a faint purple outline. Just off the edge of this lobe is a slightly smaller orange sponge-like blob. A thin, undulating blue line runs from the central stars through the right lobe. A delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud known as a nebula drifts toward the top of the image and peters out toward the left of the frame, but toward the right and bottom, it ends in a soft ridge set off in a translucent orange. The background is filled with stars and galaxies.

Credits:

Image:

NASA, ESA, CSA

Image Processing:

Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

Additional image editing by Eric Glaser

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July 30th, 2023

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