Twirling Through Space: The Spectacular Dual Protostar Dance Revealed by NASA’s James Webb Telescope
The captivating image of the Herbig Haro object 797 (HH 797), a luminous area surrounding newly formed stars, has been revealed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. These objects are created when protostars expel stellar winds or gas jets, causing shockwaves upon impact with the surrounding gas and dust at high velocities. HH 797, which is prominently displayed in the lower portion of the image, is located near the youthful open star cluster IC 348, positioned near the eastern edge of the Perseus dark cloud complex.
Taken with the Webb Space Telescope’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam), the image shows intricate details of the protostar and its outflows. Infrared imaging is key to studying newborn stars because it penetrates the obscuring gas and dust, making Herbig-Haro objects ideal targets for Webb’s sensitive infrared instruments. The emissions of molecules such as molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide caused by the eddies emit infrared light, allowing Webb to visualize the structure of the outflows. NIRCam is excellent for observing hot molecules, which reach temperatures of thousands of degrees Celsius as a result of shocks.
At the bottom of the image, there is a narrow, horizontal haze that extends from edge to edge and shows the vivid colors in more variety on the right side. At the top, the radiation point emits multi-colored light in all directions. A bright star for the diffraction peak and a few smaller stars decorate the scene. Ground-based observations revealed a redshift and blueshift gas velocity gradient associated with HH 797, indicating motion away from and toward the observer, respectively. The higher resolution provided by Webb clarifies that what was originally thought to be a single outflow is actually two nearly parallel outflows, each associated with the binary within the small dark area in the lower right corner of the image.
The James Webb Space Telescope image also captures additional outflows, including one from the protostar in the upper right corner of the image, along with its illuminated cavity walls. HH 797 is located about 30 arcseconds north of HH 211, reinforcing the telescope’s role in elucidating the complexities of star formation and the dynamic interactions of young stars with their cosmic environment.
