AssetID: 52889088
Headline: NASA Shares Incredible Close-Up Of Sun-Like Star Formation For James Webb Anniversary
Caption: NASA has released a stunning new James Webb image on the one-year anniversary of the $10 billion observatory's science observations. The incredible precision of Webb's science instruments has allowed the space agency and its partners to capture a close-up image of the nearest Sun-like star-forming region to Earth, Rho Ophiuchi. NASA saved the image for the one-year anniversary of science operations, with US President Joe Biden having revealed the very first scientific Webb image on July 11 last year, before the space agency went on to release a whole set of images the following day. The new image, once again, demonstrates Webb's unparalleled ability to peer through cosmic dust clouds revealing the stellar nurseries that would otherwise be hidden if not for the observatory’s infrared imagers. “To celebrate the completion of a successful first year, NASA has released Webb’s image of a small star-forming region in the Rho Ophiuchi cloud complex,” the space agency wrote in a blog post. Rho Ophiuchi, the nearest Sun-like star-forming region to Earth, is located 390 light-years away, meaning Webb was able to capture a highly detailed close-up. NASA pointed out that the proximity, as well as the fact there are no stars between Rho Ophiuchi and Webb, allowed for such a detailed observation. NASA explained in its post that the new image contains roughly 50 young stars, all of which have a similar mass to the Sun. The darkest areas in the dust clouds are the densest and this is where cosmic dust cocoons are in the process of forming protostars. The red streaks in the image, meanwhile, are enormous bipolar jets of molecular hydrogen. These occur when a newly-formed star shoots out of its cosmic cocoon. The brightest star in the center of the lower half of the image, called S1, is the only star in the observation that is significantly larger than the Sun. "Webb's image of Rho Ophiuchi allows us to witness a very brief period in the stellar lifecycle with new clarity," said Klaus Pontoppidan, a Webb project scientist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland. "Our own Sun experienced a phase like this, long ago, and now we have the technology to see the beginning of another star's story."
Keywords: feature,photo feature,photo story,space, galaxy, space exploration, NASA, James Webb, one-year anniversary,observatory,Rho Ophiuchi
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