The observations showed part of this nebula in a completely new light that allowed us to capture all its complexity, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), responsible together with the Canadian agency (CSA) for the telescope, announced this Monday.
The Horsehead Nebula, also known as Barnard 33, emerged from turbulent waves of dust and gas and was formed from the collapse of an interstellar cloud of material, space agencies explained, detailing that it shines because it is illuminated by a nearby hot star. .
The gas clouds surrounding this nebula have now dissipated, but the protruding pillar is made up of thick clumps of material that is more difficult to erode, and astronomers estimate it has about five million years left before it disintegrates.
The nebula is in a region of ‘photodissociation’, in which ultraviolet light from young, massive stars creates a hot, neutral zone of gas and dust between the fully ionized gas surrounding the massive stars and the clouds in which they are located.
This ultraviolet radiation greatly influences the chemistry of gases in these regions and acts as the most important source of heat, according to the same sources.
These regions occur where interstellar gas is dense enough to remain neutral, but not dense enough to prevent the penetration of far ultraviolet light from massive stars.
The light emitted by this ‘photodissociation’ constitutes a unique tool for studying the physical and chemical processes that drive the evolution of interstellar matter throughout the Universe, from the beginning of star formation to the present.
Due to its proximity and geometry, the Horsehead Nebula is an ideal target for astronomers to study the physical structures of such regions and the evolution of the chemical characteristics of gas and dust in their respective environments, as well as the transition regions between these. .
According to the space agencies involved in the James Webb Telescope, this is considered one of the best objects in the sky for studying how radiation interacts with interstellar matter.
From now on, researchers intend to study the spectroscopic data obtained from the nebula to demonstrate the evolution of the physical and chemical properties of the material observed through the nebula.
