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@coreyspowell@mastodon.social · yesterday

Crystal winds blow through the picturesque gas clouds where stars are forming.

JWST caught the process in action: A protostar called EC53 had an outburst & crystals of forsterite and enstatite formed before our eyes. The future of our galaxy is taking shape here.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-finds-young-sun-like-star-forging-spewing-common-crystals/ #science #space #astronomy

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) — NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s 2024 NIRCam image shows protostar EC 53 circled. Researchers using new data from Webb’s MIRI proved that crystalline silicates form in the hottest part of the disk of gas and dust surrounding the star — and may be shot to the system’s edges. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Klaus Pontoppidan (NASA-JPL), Joel Green (STScI); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

NASA Science

NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common Crystals

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require

Corey S Powell

@coreyspowell@mastodon.social replied · yesterday

Comets are cold, but they're full of silicate crystals that form at high temperatures. (These crystals, left, were collected from Comet Wild 2, right.)

Now we know how that happens! Newborn stars blow fast, crystalline winds away from their hot inner regions.

https://science.nasa.gov/missions/webb/nasa-webb-finds-young-sun-like-star-forging-spewing-common-crystals/ #space #science #nature

2 media

Tiny crystals from the Wild 2 comet, captured by NASA’s Stardust mission, resemble fragments of the molten mineral droplets called chondrules, shown here, found in primitive meteorites. That similar flash-heated particles were found in Wild 2, a comet formed in the icy fringes of outer space, suggests that solid materials may have been transported outward in the young solar system.

This image shows the comet Wild 2, which NASA's Stardust spacecraft flew by on Jan. 2, 2004. This image is the closest short exposure of the comet, taken at an11.4-degree phase angle, the angle between the camera, comet and the Sun. The listed names on the diagram (see Figure 1) are those used by the Stardust team to identify features. "Basin" does not imply an impact origin.

NASA Science

NASA Webb Finds Young Sun-Like Star Forging, Spewing Common Crystals

Astronomers have long sought evidence to explain why comets at the outskirts of our own solar system contain crystalline silicates, since crystals require

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