When Hubble presented an image of the Carina Nebula on its 17th anniversary, we could not examine what was happening there with such clarity. However, with the launch of the James Webb things changed and now we are facing an era in which humanity will be able to observe incredible images from space, one of them about this fascinating nebula.
Image: NASA
With an outstanding image, James Webb presented a new resolution about Carina. That’s where a lot of stellar births and deaths take place. Thousands of brilliant flashes mark the birth of new stars, a literal fantasy landscape.
Carina Nebula and the Cosmic Cliffs
What the James Webb Telescope captured for humanity is the edge of the giant gas cavity inside NGC 3324, that is, the cosmic mountains or valleys. The image is about 7 light years high, the intense ultraviolet radiation has created a cavernous area in the nebula, as well as giving life to young, hot stars.
Image: NASA
It is exactly these stars and their radiation that have shaped the Carina Nebula. An erosion occurs slowly creating dramatic pillar landscapes. What is observed as vapor is actually hot ionized gas and hot dust coming out of the nebula due to the intense radiation at its center.
Thanks to the unrelenting sensitivity of the James Webb telescope, cosmic dust is observed through objects, as well as protostellar jets shooting out of some nascent stars.
What does the nebula reveal to us?
While astronomers and scientists observe the nebula they will be able to study the star formation process. That is, it will be revealed how stars are born, how it propagates over time or even how the development of this nebula works.
In reality, the balance of star formation in the Carina Nebula is very delicate. The increase in edge pressure could cause the material to collapse and new stars would be born, but that perturbation could also prevent star formation.
Image: NASA
It is believed that Carina’s incredible lights began about three million years ago, when the first generation of stars born from the nebula condensed. Just as this happened, an immense cloud of cold molecular hydrogen ignited, creating a bubble of expanding hot gas. However, the questions are just being created.
So far the James Webb has given a first look, there is very little data. But hope grows, since we already have great advances at least in the observation of these cosmic events. This could be the beginning of the analysis of a nest of stars, this is where the flashes of the universe emerge or at least some of them and it is fantastic to look at them and recognize that we are composed of these remains and elements.