Free Astronomy Magazine January-February 2023

T he protostar within the dark cloud L1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), is embedded within a cloud of material feeding its growth. Ejections from the star have cleared out cavities above and below it, whose boundaries glow orange and blue in this infrared view. The upper central region displays bubble-like shapes due to stellar “burps,” or spo- radic ejections. Webb also detects fil- aments made of molecular hydrogen that has been shocked by past stellar ejections. The edges of the cavities at upper left and lower right appear straight, while the boundaries at upper right and lower left are curved. The region at lower right ap- pears blue, as there’s less dust be- tween it and Webb than the orange regions above it. [NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI − Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI)]