Ever wondered what the birth of a star looks like? Well, wonder no more. This is a recent image from the James Webb Space Telescope, showing protostar L1527, one that only popped into existence around 100,000 years ago.
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00:00Ever wondered what the birth of a star looks like?
00:06Well wonder no more!
00:07This is a recent image from the James Webb Space Telescope showing protostar L1527, one
00:13that only popped into existence around 100,000 years ago.
00:17That might not seem too new, but stars tend to live for a really, really long time, like
00:2150 million to 20 billion years.
00:24And because of how young this one is, it is still hanging out in the molecular cloud from
00:28which it was born.
00:29L1527 is not a main-sequence star, meaning it is not the product of an ongoing fusion
00:34reaction.
00:35Rather, its energy is derived from heated and compressed material, and actually creates
00:39a strong magnetic field.
00:41That field pushes material out in massive jets at its poles, ejecting matter far out
00:46into space.
00:47And that's what you're seeing here, with the hourglass figure a result of this magnetic
00:50push out into the cosmos.
00:52The James Webb Telescope was built for this type of observation.
00:55As astronomers are still unsure about how and why, star fusion reactions begin.
01:00One of many questions that will hopefully, eventually be answered by NASA's flagship
01:05Space Telescope.