Herbig-Haro 46/47 (NIRCam Image)

Stsci_2023-131a_1024

stsci_2023-131a July 26th, 2023

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

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.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-131

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
HH 46/47
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Star Formation
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Protostar

Distance

Universescale1
1,470 light years
Stsci_2023-131a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 8h 25m 43.6s
DEC = -51° 0’ 37.6”
Orientation
North is 118.5° CW
Field of View
7.3 x 4.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Vela

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 1.2 µm
Cyan Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 1.9 µm
Green Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 2.0 µm
Yellow Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 3.4 µm
Orange Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 4.4 µm
Red Webb (NIRCam) Infrared 4.7 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Cyan
Green
Yellow
Orange
Red
Stsci_2023-131a_1280
×
ID
2023-131a
Subject Category
B.4.1.2   B.3.1.1  
Subject Name
HH 46/47
Credits
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
Release Date
2023-07-26
Lightyears
1,470
Redshift
1,470
Reference Url
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-131
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
distance in lightyears
Facility
Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb, Webb
Instrument
NIRCam, NIRCam, NIRCam, NIRCam, NIRCam, NIRCam
Color Assignment
Blue, Cyan, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red
Band
Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
-, -, -, -, -, -
Central Wavelength
1150, 1870, 2000, 3350, 4440, 4700
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
2000.0
Reference Value
126.43183356541, -51.01045458121
Reference Dimension
14559.00, 8481.00
Reference Pixel
7285.53441719315, 4244.32160254894
Scale
-0.00000834430, 0.00000834430
Rotation
-118.52616991814
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
World Coordinate System resolved using PinpointWCS 0.9.2 revision 218+ by the Chandra X-ray Center
Creator (Curator)
STScI
URL
http://stsci.edu
Name
Space Telescope Science Institute Office of Public Outreach
Email
outreach@stsci.edu
Telephone
410-338-4444
Address
3700 San Martin Drive
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
USA
Rights
http://stsci.edu/copyright/
Publisher
STScI
Publisher ID
stsci
Resource ID
STSCI-J-p23131a-f-14559x8481.tif
Metadata Date
2023-07-27T09:52:53-04:00
Metadata Version
1.2
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×
Universescalefull
1,470 light years

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