FS Tau (Webb NIRCam image)

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope captures the infrared light from bright protostars in the young star system FS Tau. 

In addition to myriad background galaxies that burst into view, this image flickers with a number of protostars, or baby stars that are formed from dense pockets of gas and dust. These hot, clumpy, and low-mass objects eventually will become full-fledged stars capable of burning hydrogen in their cores, like our Sun. The protostars of FS Tau are about 1 to 3 million years old, which is relatively young in cosmic scales. Our Sun, by contrast, is 4.6 billion years old.

FS Tau A, a pair of protostars that creates the largest diffraction pattern slightly to the left of centre, is about half the mass of our Sun. FS Tau B, the orange protostar slightly right of centre, is thought to be responsible for the red (molecular hydrogen) and orange (soot-like molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) outflows that we see amid the dusty region. The blue ridges are areas where light has been scattered by dust.

The different colours of the background galaxies indicate how much dust is in front of them, as dust both absorbs and scatters light. Redder galaxies lie behind larger amounts of dust, yellower galaxies lie behind thinner layers of dust, and whiter galaxies are mostly unobstructed.

You can learn more about this image here.

[Image description: FS Tau, a star-forming nebula. Clouds of transparent blue and purple gas and dust extend from slightly left of centre to the right side of the frame, from 2 o’clock to 5 o’clock. Several yellow and white protostars, some showing Webb’s eight-pronged diffraction pattern are dispersed throughout the clouds. Orange wisps and filaments of gas extend from one of the protostars at the centre toward the top left and bottom right corners of the frame. There are numerous, distant yellow and white galaxies strewn about the black background of space.]