Free Astronomy Magazine September-October 2024

41 SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING rounding matter and cause the re- gions above and below it to glow. This creates an effect reminiscent of fireworks brightening a cloudy night sky. Unlike NIRCam, however, which mostly shows the light that is reflected off dust, MIRI provides a look into how these outflows affect the region’s thickest dust and gases. The areas colored here in blue, which encompass most of the hour- glass, show mostly carbonaceous molecules known as polycyclic aro- matic hydrocarbons. The protostar itself and the dense blanket of dust and a mixture of gases that surround it are repre- sented in red. (The sparkler-like red extensions are an artifact of the telescope’s optics). In between, MIRI reveals a white region directly above and below the protostar, which doesn’t show as strongly in the NIRCam view. This region is a mixture of hydrocarbons, ionized neon, and thick dust, which shows that the protostar propels this mat- ter quite far away from it as it mess- ily consumes material from its disk. As the protostar continues to age and release energetic jets, it’ll con- sume, destroy, and push away much of this molecular cloud, and many of the structures we see here will begin to fade. Eventually, once it finishes gathering mass, this impres- sive display will end, and the star it- self will become more apparent, even to our visible-light telescopes. The combination of analyses from both the near-infrared and mid-in- frared views reveal the overall be- havior of this system, including how the central protostar is affecting the surrounding region. Other stars in Taurus, the star-forming region where L1527 resides, are forming just like this, which could lead to other molecular clouds being dis- rupted and either preventing new stars from forming or catalyzing their development. L 1527, shown in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Tele- scope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instru- ment), is a molecular cloud that harbors a protostar. It resides about 460 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. The more dif- fuse blue light and the filamentary structures in the image come from organic compounds known as poly- cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), while the red at the center of this image is an energized, thick layer of gases and dust that sur- rounds the protostar. The region in between, which shows up in white, is a mixture of PAHs, ionized gas, and other molecules. This image in- cludes filters representing 7.7 mi- crons light as blue, 12.8 microns light as green, and 18 microns light as red. [NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI] !