The Webb Image you've Been Waiting For: the Orion Nebula - by spacewriter
Light from the Trapezium stars lights up the view. The Trapezium and other young stars in the region give off strong ultraviolet radiation. It eats away at the clouds of gas and dust in a process called “photodissociation”. In particular, the UV light is eroding a feature called the “Orion Bar”, which we see edge-on. It’s a wall of thick dust and gas that’s running diagonally across the image. The bright star near its heart is ?2 Orionis A, which is actually a triple star system.
Diving into JWST’s view of Orion Nebula, we see a young star with a disk inside its cocoon. The disk is being dissipated or “photo-evaporated” due to the strong radiation field of the nearby stars of the Trapezium. The orbit of Neptune is shown for comparison. There are also filaments; the inset shows thin, meandering filaments that are especially rich in hydrocarbon molecules and molecular hydrogen. They are believed to be created by turbulent motions of the gas within the nebula.
“Seeing these first images of the Orion Nebula is just the beginning. The PDRs4All team is working hard to analyze the Orion data and we expect new discoveries about these early phases of the formation of stellar systems,” said team member Emilie Habart. “We are excited to be part of Webb’s journey of discoveries.”
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