{"id":234669,"date":"2024-06-20T21:16:12","date_gmt":"2024-06-20T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-webb-telescopes-dazzling-nebula-image-supports-a-long-held-theory\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:16:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:16:34","slug":"the-webb-telescopes-dazzling-nebula-image-supports-a-long-held-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/20\/the-webb-telescopes-dazzling-nebula-image-supports-a-long-held-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"The Webb Telescope\u2019s dazzling nebula image supports a long-held theory"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The image of the Serpens Nebula you see above, taken by NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope<\/a> (JWST), not only looks mesmerizing but also captures a never-before-seen phenomenon. The aligned, elongated \u201cprotostellar outflows\u201d visible in the top left support a longstanding theory. As suspected, the jets shoot out in alignment from the swirling disks of surrounding material, showing evidence that clusters of forming stars spin in the same direction.<\/p>\n

NASA says<\/a> the bright and clumpy streaks in the image\u2019s upper-left area, which somewhat resemble JJ Abrams-style lens flare, represent shockwaves caused by outward-shooting jets that emerge when the interstellar gas cloud collapses inwards. As forming stars condense and twirl more rapidly, some material shoots out perpendicular to the disk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAstronomers have long assumed that as clouds collapse to form stars, the stars will tend to spin in the same direction,\u201d Klaus Pontoppidan of NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory wrote in a blog post. \u201cHowever, this has not been seen so directly before. These aligned, elongated structures are a historical record of the fundamental way that stars are born.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Perpendicular\"Perpendicular<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The aligned jets (which look a bit like JJ Abrams-style lens flare) indicate the forming stars spin in the same direction.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

The Serpens Nebula is only one or two million years old and sits around 1,300 light years from Earth. NASA says the dense cluster of protostars at the image\u2019s center includes stars less than 100,000 years old. Serpens is a reflection nebula, meaning the gas and dust cloud shines by reflecting light from stars inside or nearby.<\/p>\n

The JWST\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captured the image, which covers about 16 trillion miles by 11 trillion miles. The black rectangles you see at the full image\u2019s lower left and upper left represent missing data. NASA says its next step is to use the telescope\u2019s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) to study the Serpens Nebula\u2019s chemical breakdown.<\/p>\n

You can check out NASA\u2019s instructional video below for a closer look at specific details from the glorious image.<\/p>\n

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