stsci_2023-129b June 26th, 2023
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb), PDRs4ALL ERS Team
This image taken by Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) shows a part of the Orion Nebula known as the Orion Bar. It is a region where energetic ultraviolet light from the Trapezium Cluster — located off the upper-left corner — interacts with dense molecular clouds. The energy of the stellar radiation is slowly eroding the Orion Bar, and this has a profound effect on the molecules and chemistry in the protoplanetary disks that have formed around newborn stars here.
Within this image lies a young star system known as d203-506, which has a protoplanetary disk. Astronomers used Webb to detect a carbon molecule known as methyl cation in that disk for the first time. That molecule is important because it aids the formation of more complex carbon-based molecules.
Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute
Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-129
Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA
Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/
Telescope | Spectral Band | Wavelength | |
---|---|---|---|
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 1.4 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 1.6 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 1.6 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 1.8 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 2.1 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 1.9 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 2.8 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 2.1 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 3.0 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 3.4 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 3.2 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 4.7 µm | |
Webb (NIRCam) | Infrared | 4.8 µm | |
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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