LDN 1527

LDN1527 - James Webb Space Telescope - which of these 3 images do you prefer ?

A new star, “only” about 100,000 years old, is forming in the neck of this cosmic hourglass. The protostar L1527 itself is hidden in this view, but the light it creates illuminates clouds of gas and dust that are being sucked inwards. The vivid greens, oranges, and reds are only visible in the infrared light of the James Webb Space Telescope. As the star ages, it gathers these nearby materials into its accretion disk, gaining mass and eventually reaching the size and stability of a full star.

JWST captures data at various wavelengths. This image is comprised of 3 separate images captured using the NIRCAM Camera using the F200, F444 and F335 filters. These filters were mapped to 3 different visible light colours to produce these images.

Image produced from raw data downloaded from MAST: the Barbara A. Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes

Original image by ESA/Hubble, alignment, integration and colour mapping by Arc Fortnight.