Stars are just like kids. When they’re young, they’re really active and full of energy. Just like how your little brother or sister might run around the house, young stars do a lot of stuff too.
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has taken a really good picture of two of these young stars. They are called Herbig-Haro 46/47.
To find them in the image, look for the bright pink and red spikes. Follow them to the center. The two stars are in the middle of a big orange-white blob.
The stars are hiding in a huge cloud of gas and dust. This cloud is like their food. They keep getting bigger as they take in more of this gas and dust.
Star Showers and Jets
The picture shows something amazing – it looks like there are big orange wings coming out of the stars. This isn’t just a cool picture. It’s showing something really important. It’s showing us how these stars are growing.
Remember the gas and dust they are eating? Well, they don’t keep all of it. They spit out a lot of it back into space. It’s like if you were eating a big bag of popcorn and threw some of it around.
This popcorn would go all over the place. It’s the same with the stars. They throw out gas and dust, and it goes all over, making those big orange wings.
Sometimes, these stars spit out the gas faster or slower. Sometimes, they spit out more or less. It depends on how much gas and dust they had just eaten. This is why the orange wings look a bit messy and have different shapes.
A Star’s Blue Streaks
The picture also shows blue streaks. They’re near the middle of the picture, just under a red line. These streaks are also gas and dust the stars spat out.
They’re just newer than the orange stuff. They also make some wavy patterns on the right side of the image.
These blue streaks and the orange wings help the stars to grow. They help control how much gas and dust the stars eat. This is really important because it helps the stars to not get too big too quickly.
The Blue Cloud
There’s a big blue cloud in the picture too. This cloud is also made of gas and dust, just like the stuff the stars are eating. This cloud is a bit different though. It’s much thicker.
When you look at it with normal light, it looks almost black. But the special telescope can see through it. It shows us that the cloud is really blue. This blue cloud is around the orange wings and blue streaks from the stars.
This cloud is pretty important. It changes the way the orange wings and blue streaks look. The gas and dust from the stars crash into the cloud and light it up.
Other Parts of the Picture
There are other things in the picture that show us more about the stars. There’s a funny shaped thing in the top right corner. It looks like a sponge.
This is also gas and dust that the stars spat out. There’s also an arc on the lower left. This arc is probably older gas and dust that the stars spat out a long time ago.
A Final Look
Take another look at the picture. It might look like the stars are straight in front of us. But one of them is actually a bit closer. The right half of the picture is a bit closer to us. The left side is a bit farther away.
These stars won’t stay young forever. They will grow up. They will become bigger stars. They won’t spit out as much gas and dust anymore. The picture will look a lot more calm then.
This picture is really clear because the stars are quite close to us. They’re in a group of stars called the Vela Constellation.
It’s also clear because the telescope took a lot of pictures and put them together. This makes it look deeper and more detailed.
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