Stars don’t start out fully formed. Instead, they begin when clouds of diffuse gas and dust clump together, becoming denser than their surroundings. Gravity does the rest, pulling material inward until a collapsing knot becomes a compact, warming core: a protostar, still feeding on the cloud that created it.
That’s exactly what was seen in a recent image from NASA’s and the European Space Agency‘s (ESA) Hubble Space Telescope, as the star-forming region known as NGC-1333 hosts a protostar as well as other young stellar objects.
What is it?
Protostars are messy and dynamic, gulping down material in spurts and fits and ejecting powerful outflows of wind and jets that punch into the surrounding clouds. The result is a constant push-and-pull between growth and disruption as the star accretes from its disk while simultaneously blasting material away, carving cavities and shaping the environment that neighboring stars and planets will inherit.
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In places where the starlight leaks out and bounces off dust grains, it can illuminate a cloud in phenomenon known as a reflection nebula, as two dark stripes flank the bright point of the growing star. According to Hubble researchers, the stripes are the signature of a protoplanetary disk and the disk’s shadow cast across the larger envelope of material that still surrounds the young star.
Where is it?
The star-forming region of NGC 1333 is found in the Perseus molecular cloud, roughly 950 light-years away from Earth.
A protostar, reflection nebula and young stars dominate this stunning image from the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, K. Stapelfeldt (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and D. Watson (University of Rochester); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America))Why is it amazing?
Regions like NGC 1333 are key for astronomers to better understand the nitty-gritty details of star formation. By mapping these areas in both infrared and visible wavelengths of light, different aspects of this scientific process are revealed. Recent work in the broader NGC 1333 area has used high-resolution observation of protostellar jets to read outbursts like “time stamps,” which help astronomers connect bursts of activity to changes in the flow of material, showing that star growth is episodic rather than smooth.
Ultimately, understanding how stars form is inseparable from understanding our own beginnings. Every rocky planet, ocean or atmosphere has begun with the same ingredients: gas, dust, gravity and time. Images like this don’t just show how stars can form but also reveal how their dynamics help shape the universe around us.
Want to learn more?
You can learn more about stellar nurseries and the Hubble Space Telescope.