Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, a team of researchers, including astronomers from the University of Michigan, are closing in on the answer to a looming cosmic question.
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, a team of researchers, including astronomers from the University of Michigan, are closing in on the answer to a looming cosmic question.
In probing the Flame Nebula, they’re finding out what’s the smallest celestial body that can form on its own from clouds of gas and dust in space.
The Flame Nebula, located about 1,400 light-years away from Earth, is a hotbed of star formation less than 1 million years old. Within the Flame Nebula, there are objects so small that their cores will never be able to fuse hydrogen like full-fledged stars—brown dwarfs.
Brown dwarfs, often called “failed stars,” become very dim over time and much cooler than stars. These factors make observing brown dwarfs with most telescopes difficult, if not impossible, even at cosmically short distances from the sun. When they are very young, however, they still are relatively warm and bright and, therefore, easier to observe despite the obscuring, dense dust and gas that comprises the Flame Nebula in this case.
Read more at University of Michigan
Image: A Hubble Space Telescope shows the Flame Nebula in visible light on the left. The zoomed-in views on the right show images from the JWST taken using near-infrared light. Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Meyer (University of Michigan), A. Pagan (STScI)
