This butterfly-shaped nebula owes its structure to 2 chaotic young stars
A huge bipolar outflow of gas and dust, grown from the tumultuous birth of a double-star system, has formed a cosmic hourglass — and the James Webb Space Telescope imaged the scene in splendiferous detail.
Referred to as Lynds 483, or LBN 483,, this nebulous outflow is located about 650 light years away. It provides an ideal opportunity for the James Webb Space Telescope to learn more about the process of star formation. (Beverly Lynds was an astronomer who catalogued both bright nebulas – BN – and dark nebulas – DN – in the 1960s)
How does the birth of stars form a nebula like this? Well, stars grow by accreting material from their immediate environs of a gravitationally collapsed cloud of molecular gas. Yet, paradoxically, they are able to spit some material back out in fast, narrow jets or wider but slower outflows. These jets and outflows clash with gas and dust in the surroundings, creating nebulas like LBN 483.
The jets are formed by material with a rich abundance of varied molecules falling onto young protostars. In the case of LBN 483, there's not one but two protostars, the main star having a lower mass companion that was only discovered as recently as 2022 by a team led by Erin Cox of Northwestern University using ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile. The fact that there are two stars lurking at the heart of this butterfly-shaped nebula will be crucial, as we shall see.
We can't see those two protostars in the JWST's Near-Infrared Camera image — they are far too small on the scale of this image — but if we could imagine zooming in right to the heart of the nebula, between its two lobes, or "wings," we would find the two stars snugly ensconced within a dense, doughnut-shaped cloud of gas and dust. This cloud is supplemented with material from the gaseous, butterfly-shaped nebula beyond; the stars grow from material that accretes onto them from the dusty doughnut.
The jets and outflows are not constant but rather occur in bursts, responding to periods when the baby stars are overfed and belch out some of their accreted material. Magnetic fields play a crucial role here, directing these outflows of charged particles.
In LBN 483, the JWST is witnessing where these jets and outflows are colliding with both the surrounding nebulous womb but also earlier ejected material. As the outflows crash into the surrounding material, intricate shapes are formed. The fresh outflow plows through and responds to the density of the material its are encountering.
The whole scene is illuminated by the light of the burgeoning stars themselves, shining up and down through the holes of their dusty donuts, hence why we see the V-shaped bright lobes and dark areas between them where light is blocked by the torus.
The JWST has picked out intricate details in LBN 483's lobes, namely the aforementioned twists and crumples. The bright orange arc is a shock-front where an outflow is currently crashing into surrounding material. We can also see what look like pillars, colored light purple here (this is all false color, meant to represent different infrared wavelengths) and pointing away from the two stars. These pillars are denser clumps of gas and dust that the outflows haven't yet managed to erode, like how the towering buttes in the western United States have remained resolute to wind and rain erosion.
Observations by ALMA have detected polarized radio waves coming from the cold dust in the heart of the nebula — dust too cold for even JWST to detect. The polarization of these radio waves is caused by the orientation of the magnetic field that pervades LBN 483's inner sanctum. This magnetic field is parallel to the outflows that form LBN 483, but perpendicular to the inflow of material falling onto the two stars.
Remember, it is the magnetic field that ultimately drives the outflows, so how it behaves is important for sculpting the shape of the nebula. The dust polarization reveals that about 93 billion miles (150 billion kilometers/1,000 astronomical units) from the stars (similar to the distance of Voyager 1 from our sun), the magnetic field has a distinct 45-degree counter-clockwise kink. This may have an effect on how the outflows shape LBN 483.
This twist is a result of the movements of the growing stars. Currently, the two protostars are separated by 34 astronomical units (3.2 billion miles/5.1 billion kilometers), which is just a little farther than Neptune is from our sun. However, the leading hypothesis suggests that the two stars were born farther apart, and then one migrated closer to the other. This likely altered the distribution of angular momentum (the momentum of orbiting bodies) in the young system. Like energy, momentum has to be conserved, so the excess angular momentum would have been dumped into the magnetic field that is carried by the outflows in the same way that our sun's magnetic field is carried by the solar wind, causing the magnetic field to twist.
Studying young systems like the one powering LBN 483 is vital for learning more about how stars form, beginning with a giant cloud of molecular gas that becomes destabilized, undergoes gravitational collapse and fragments into clumps, each clump being the womb of a new star system. LBN 483 is particularly interesting in that it does not seem to be part of a larger star-forming region like the Orion Nebula, and so as an isolated spot of starbirth it may operate on slightly different rules to those huge stellar nurseries.
Related Stories:
— Is our universe trapped inside a black hole? This James Webb Space Telescope discovery might blow your mind
— This astronomer found a sneaky extra star in James Webb Space Telescope data
— James Webb Space Telescope investigates the origins of 'failed stars' in the Flame Nebula
By studying the shape of LBN 483 and the way that shape arises from outflows emanating from the protostars, and plugging those details into numerical simulations of star formation so that they can replicate what the JWST sees, astronomers can revise their models of star formation and better understand not only how all the stars in the night sky formed, but also the events that resulted in the birth of our own sun 4.6 billion years ago.
Who knows, perhaps 4.6 billion years ago, alien astronomers were watching our own sun form. And in another 4.6 billion years, the inhabitants of the binary system currently sitting snugly within LBN 483 could be doing the same thing, while at the same time watching the protracted death of our sun. These astronomers would be separated by billions of years, but connected by the immense longevity of the stars around them.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
'Chaos' reigns beneath the ice of Jupiter moon Europa, James Webb Space Telescope reveals
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. New observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) are painting a new picture of Jupiter's moon Europa and revealing the hidden chemistry of the icy moon's interior. For decades, scientists pictured Europa's frozen surface as a still, silent shell. But the new observations reveal that it's actually a dynamic world that's far from frozen in time. "We think that the surface is fairly porous and warm enough in some areas to allow the ice to recrystallize rapidly," Richard Cartwright, a spectroscopist at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory and lead author of the new study, said in a statement. Perhaps even more exciting is what this surface activity reveals about Europa's subsurface ocean. The presence of geologic activity and ongoing cycling between the subsurface and surface make "chaos terrains" — highly disrupted regions where blocks of ice seem to have broken off, drifted and refrozen — especially valuable as potential windows into Europa's interior. The study focused on two regions in Europa's southern hemisphere: Tara Regio and Powys Regio. Tara Regio, in particular, stands out as one of the moon's most intriguing areas. Observations from JWST detected crystalline ice both at the surface and deeper below — challenging previous assumptions about how ice is distributed on Europa. Related: Explore Jupiter's icy ocean moon Europa in NASA virtual tour (photos) By measuring the spectral properties of these "chaos" regions using remotely sensed data, scientists could gain valuable insight about Europa's chemistry as well as its potential for habitability, they explained in the paper, which was published May 28 in The Planetary Science Journal. "Our data showed strong indications that what we are seeing must be sourced from the interior, perhaps from a subsurface ocean nearly 20 miles (30 kilometers) beneath Europa's thick icy shell," Ujjwal Raut, program manager at the Southwest Research Institute and co-author of the study, said in the statement. Hidden chemistry Raut and his team conducted laboratory experiments to study how water freezes on Europa, where the surface is constantly bombarded by charged particles from space. Unlike on Earth, where ice naturally forms a hexagonal crystal structure, the intense radiation on Europa disrupts the ice's structure, causing it to become what's known as amorphous ice — a disordered, noncrystalline form. The experiments played a crucial role in demonstrating how the ice changes over time. By studying how the ice transforms between different states, scientists can learn more about the moon's surface dynamics. When combined with fresh data from JWST, these findings add to a growing body of evidence showing that a vast, hidden liquid ocean lies beneath Europa's icy shell. "In this same region […] we see a lot of other unusual things, including the best evidence for sodium chloride, like table salt, probably originating from its interior ocean," Cartwright said. "We also see some of the strongest evidence for CO2 and hydrogen peroxide on Europa. The chemistry in this location is really strange and exciting." These regions, marked by fractured surface features, may point to geologic activity pushing material up from beneath Europa's icy shell. JWST's NIRSpec instrument is especially well suited for studying Europa's surface because it can detect key chemical signatures across a wide range of infrared wavelengths. This includes features associated with crystalline water ice and a specific form of carbon dioxide called ¹³CO₂, which are important for understanding the moon's geologic and chemical processes. NIRSpec can measure these features all at once while also creating detailed maps that show how these materials are distributed across Europa's surface. Its high sensitivity and ability to collect both spectral and spatial data make it an ideal tool for uncovering clues about what lies beneath Europa's icy crust. The team detected higher levels of carbon dioxide in these areas than in surrounding regions. They concluded that it likely originates from the subsurface ocean rather than from external sources like meteorites, which would have resulted in a more even distribution. Moreover, carbon dioxide is unstable under Europa's intense radiation environment, suggesting that these deposits are relatively recent and tied to ongoing geological processes. "The evidence for a liquid ocean underneath Europa's icy shell is mounting, which makes this so exciting as we continue to learn more," Raut said. RELATED STORIES —NASA Juno spacecraft picks up hints of activity on Jupiter's icy moon Europa —Jupiter's ocean moon Europa may have less oxygen than we thought —What next for NASA's Europa Clipper? The long road to Jupiter and its moons Another intriguing finding was the presence of carbon-13, an isotope of carbon. "Where is this 13CO2 coming from? It's hard to explain, but every road leads back to an internal origin, which is in line with other hypotheses about the origin of 12CO2 detected in Tara Regio," Cartwright said. This study arrives as NASA's Europa Clipper mission is currently en route to the Jovian moon, with an expected arrival in April 2030. The spacecraft will perform dozens of flybys, with each one bringing it closer to Europa's surface to gather critical data about the ocean hidden beneath the moon's icy crust. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
When did our solar system's planets form? Discovery of tiny meteorite may challenge the timeline
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A tiny meteorite is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about the origins of our solar system. New evidence found in shavings from a meteorite known as Northwest Africa 12264 — a 50-gram (1.8 ounces) piece of space rock that is believed to have formed in the outer solar system — suggests that rocky planets like Earth and distant icy bodies may have formed at the same time. This challenges the long-standing belief that planets closer to the sun formed before those in the outer solar system, the ones that lie beyond the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Planets form within the rotating disks of gas and dust that surround young stars, where particles collide and stick together through a process known as accretion. As developing rocky planets heat up, they begin to differentiate, forming separate internal layers known as the core, mantle and crust. Scientists have thought that our solar system's inner rocky planets — Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars —formed first (around 4.566 billion years ago), while gas giants and icy bodies in the outer solar system came together slightly later (4.563 billion years ago), due to the colder temperatures at a greater distance from the sun. Rocky planets farther out were also thought to form more slowly because their higher water and ice content would have delayed internal heating and core development. Analyzing the composition of the meteorite (which was purchased from a dealer in Morocco in 2018) revealed a ratio of chromium and oxygen that indicates it came from the outer part of the solar system. Using precise isotopic dating methods, the researchers found that the rock formed 4.564 billion years ago — just two to three million years after the solar system's earliest solid materials. Until now, such early formation was thought to be limited to bodies from the inner solar system, according to a statement announcing the new study. RELATED STORIES — How did the solar system form? — Solar system guide: Discover the order of planets and other amazing facts — What are meteorites? Evidence that rocky planets beyond Jupiter formed as rapidly, and at the same time, as the inner planets could transform our understanding of how planets take shape — not only in our solar system, but in planetary systems throughout the universe, the researchers said. Their findings were published on July 4 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
These 3 popular skywatching star clusters may be branches of the same family tree
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Three of the most popular targets for astronomers of all skill levels are the Seven Sisters (the Pleiades), the Hyades and the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC), which is the central "star" in Orion's Sword. Now, scientists have discovered that these celestial bodies may have more in common than once thought. The star clusters may share a common origin mechanism, they say, despite the fact that the three clusters are all different ages and are located at different distances from Earth. This new research suggests looking at the three star clusters is like looking at three snapshots taken of the same person at three different stages of their life, from infancy to old age. The youngest of these open clusters is the ONC at 2.5 million years old. Located around 1,350 light-years away and packed with thousands of young stars embedded in the stellar cloud that created them, it is one of the most active star-forming regions in the Milky Way. Located 444 light-years from Earth, the Pleiades is less densely packed than the ONC, but it is much more ancient at 100 million years old. However, the Hyades, located 151 light-years away, has fewer stars that are even more thinly spread out and is around 700 million years old. Yet, as diverse as these star clusters seem, the team's new research suggests they share a particular kind of ancestor. "Our highly precise stellar dynamics calculations have now shown that all three star clusters originated from the same predecessor," team member and University of Bonn researcher Pavel Kroupa said in a statement. Star clusters on the same cosmic family tree The team compares the varied ages and conditions in these three star clusters to looking at the same human being through photos that document the stages of their life. The densely packed ONC is the baby, the more dispersed Pleiades is the adolescent, and the Hyades is the elderly person. Though the three clusters didn't form from the same molecular cloud of dense gas and dust, they can be compared to the same person being born three times in different parts of the globe. "From this, we can learn that open star clusters seem to have a preferred mode of star formation," Kroupa explained. "It appears that there is a preferred physical environment in which stars form when they evolve within these clouds." The question is: How does a cluster like the ONC develop into one like Pleiades and then age into a cluster like the Hyades? Kroupa and colleagues, including team leader Ghasem Safaei from the Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Sciences, set about answering this question with computer simulations. Star clusters grow old gracefully The team's simulations revealed the forces acting between stars in a cluster. This allowed the scientists to model the life cycle of such a collection of stars from a gas-rich, dense infancy through gradual expansion and gradual gas and star loss over the course of 800 million years. The results obtained by the team closely reflected the changes in structure and composition between the phases we see exemplified by the ONC, the Pleiades and the Hyades. "This research shows that it is entirely plausible that star clusters such as the ONC follow a development path that transforms them into systems like Pleiades and later on Hyades," Hosein Haghi, study team member and a researcher at the University of Bonn, said in the statement. The team's results indicated that clusters like the ONC can lose up to 85% of their stellar population and yet hang on to coherent structures when they reach ages similar to that of the Hyades while passing through a stage that resembles the Pleiades. The team's research also suggests that the fact these three clusters appear close together in the night sky over Earth, despite being widely separated in the cosmos, may be more than a mere coincidence. This positioning could, in fact, be related to the way star clusters form and evolve in relation to our galaxy. "This research gives us a deeper understanding of how star clusters form and develop and illustrates the delicate balance between internal dynamics and external forces such as the gravitational pull of the Milky Way," team member Akram Hasani Zonoozi of the University of Bonn said in the statement. Related Stories: — Hubble Space Telescope reveals richest view of Andromeda galaxy to date (image) — Hubble Telescope spies newborn stars in famous Orion Nebula (photo) — NASA wants a 'Super-Hubble' space telescope to search for life on alien worlds Beyond the research's importance for our understanding of star clusters and their evolution, the team's work demonstrates the power of combining simulations with astronomical observations. This research was published on Friday (July 18) in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Solve the daily Crossword
