James Webb Space Telescope shares ‘fiery cosmic hourglass’ image of protostar

In a significant development, the James Webb Space Telescope has shared an image, showing the “fiery cosmic hourglass” of a dark cloud under which a protostar is hidden. While these clouds have been found in the Taurus star-forming region. They can only be visible through infrared light.

According to the US space agency, this protostar is considered as the “neck” of the hourglass. The dark line which can be seen close to the neck is the protoplanetary disc. Importantly, the star’s light passes through both sides of this link, shining through the cavities inside dust and gas.

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These images also show filaments of molecular hydrogen that is shocked by the material linking the protostar. It may be noted that stars are formed in the cloud under normal conditions but are stopped due to shocks and turbulence that emerge through protostar. Because of this reason, the region is dominated by the protostar.

The protostar, which has been named L1527 is believed to be around 10,000 years old. It is also dubbed as a class 0 protostar, the earliest stage of star formation. This kind of protostar has long years to go before becoming a full-fledged star.

While the shape of this protostar is spherical, at the same time it is also unstable. The protostar resembles a clump of gas that is close to 20 to 40 percent of the sun’s mass. Importantly, this protostar was not able to generate its own energy with the help of nuclear fusion of hydrogen till now, which is an important characteristic among stars.

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However, the protostar will continue to collect mass and its core will also be reduced as it goes near stable nuclear fusion. The image released by the telescope shows exactly the same. The cloud that surrounds the protostar is made of gas and dust. While it gets more gas and continues to compress, the core’s temperature will increase, leading to reaching the levels needed for the start of nuclear fusion .