{"id":250417,"date":"2026-01-21T19:37:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/250417\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T19:37:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:37:07","slug":"protostar-ec-53-in-the-serpens-nebula-nircam-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/250417\/","title":{"rendered":"Protostar EC 53 in the Serpens Nebula (NIRCam Image)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This image, taken by NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope, shows the actively forming protostar EC 53 (circled) in the Serpens Nebula. EC 53 is surrounded by a <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/resource\/protoplanetary-disk\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">protoplanetary disk<\/a> where planets and comets may eventually form. (That disk isn\u2019t an obvious feature for two reasons: It\u2019s tiny from a distance, and dark dust obscures the area.)<\/p>\n<p>Researchers took additional observations of EC 53 using Webb\u2019s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to observe the star and its system when it was \u201cquiet\u201d and during its \u201cparty-like\u201d burst phase. The team, led by Jeong-Eun Lee of Seoul National University in South Korea, discovered a slew of silicates all across the star\u2019s disk of gas and dust.<\/p>\n<p>MIRI\u2019s spectra turned up crystalline forsterite and enstatite, and amorphous olivine and pyroxene near the star and throughout its protoplanetary disk. Webb\u2019s data also mapped the star\u2019s narrow, high-velocity jets near its poles, its slightly cooler and slower outflows, and the star\u2019s wider and weaker stellar winds.<\/p>\n<p>By showing precisely what is present \u2014 and where everything is \u2014 the researchers proved that crystalline silicates are being forged in the hot, inner region of the disk of gas and dust around the star, before being shot out into far-flung locales.<\/p>\n<p>Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the edge of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since these minerals require intense heat to form and comets spend most of their orbits in the ultracold <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/kuiper-belt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kuiper Belt<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/solar-system\/oort-cloud\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oort Cloud<\/a>. This is the first direct evidence that can explain how that may have happened.<\/p>\n<p>Also see what researchers reported finding about other stars in the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/webb\/first-of-its-kind-detection-made-in-striking-new-webb-image\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Serpens Nebula in 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>About the Object<\/p>\n<p>Image is about 4.8 arcminutes across (1.4 light-years)<\/p>\n<p>About the Data<\/p>\n<p>The Webb observations include those from program <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stsci.edu\/jwst\/science-execution\/program-information?id=1611\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">1611<\/a> (K. Pontoppidan).<\/p>\n<p>26 April 2023, 12 May 2023<\/p>\n<p>F140M, F210M, F360M, F480M<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This image, taken by NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope, shows the actively forming protostar&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38165,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,4078,19888,141,145,7813],"class_list":{"0":"post-250417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-james-webb-space-telescope-jwst","11":"tag-protostars","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-space","14":"tag-stars"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}