The process of formation of a star usually entails the accumulation of a large amount of gas and dust around it, forming a thick blanket that prevents the star embryo from being seen from the outside.
The activity of protostars can generate some signals in their environment that reveal what is happening at that point in space. But it is not easy to see them.
That is why it has been quite a surprise to glimpse forming stars in an area where the telltale structures of the presence of such stars had never been seen before.
The feat is the work of the Webb Space Telescope, NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
The photograph, taken by Webb, shows a sector in the area of the stellar cluster NGC 3324. The arrows indicate outward flows of molecular hydrogen, telltale signs of the presence of stars in the process of formation.
Although the Hubble Space Telescope once captured telltale signs of protostars at various points in this sector, many details are undetectable in visible light.
(Image: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / J. DePasquale (STScI))
The Webb, capable, among other things, of observing with very high resolution in the infrared band of the electromagnetic spectrum, has managed to find the hiding places of many other forming stars in that sector. (Fountain: NCYT de Amazings)