This image, taken by NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, shows the actively forming protostar EC 53 (circled) in the Serpens Nebula. EC 53 is surrounded by a protoplanetary disk where planets and comets may eventually form. (That disk isn’t an obvious feature for two reasons: It’s tiny from a distance, and dark dust obscures the area.)
Researchers took additional observations of EC 53 using Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to observe the star and its system when it was “quiet” and during its “party-like” 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’s disk of gas and dust.
MIRI’s spectra turned up crystalline forsterite and enstatite, and amorphous olivine and pyroxene near the star and throughout its protoplanetary disk. Webb’s data also mapped the star’s narrow, high-velocity jets near its poles, its slightly cooler and slower outflows, and the star’s wider and weaker stellar winds.
By showing precisely what is present — and where everything is — 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.
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 Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud. This is the first direct evidence that can explain how that may have happened.
Also see what researchers reported finding about other stars in the Serpens Nebula in 2024.
About the Object
Image is about 4.8 arcminutes across (1.4 light-years)
About the Data
The Webb observations include those from program 1611 (K. Pontoppidan).
26 April 2023, 12 May 2023
F140M, F210M, F360M, F480M