The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has detected a sun-like baby star spewing supersonic streams of gas and dust into space, creating stunning shock waves that researchers say “look like lightsabers.” The newly formed star, or protostar, is actually not visible in the latest JWST image. But scientists know that it lies at the center of a dark region between two bright outward-flowing streams of gas and dust, known as bipolar jets, emanating from accumulating stellar mass, called Herbig-Haro 211 (HH 211). (A Gerbig-Aro object is a region of the nebula illuminated by a newborn star.)

HH 211 is located about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus and was discovered in 1994. Judging by the size of the jets, the protostar is probably only a few thousand years old and about 8% smaller. Sun. However, the mini star will reach nearly the same size as the Sun within the next few million years. This suggests that our star was once very similar to HH 211.

Tom Ray, an astrophysicist at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Study and lead author of the study, said in a statement that jets of matter “can glow with light from many different atoms and molecules” excited when they collide with surrounding gas clouds. But he added that JWST’s near-infrared camera makes it much easier to distinguish aircraft components.

Infrared images show that the jets mostly consist of two or more molecules. atomsIt is bonded by a chemical bond, including carbon monoxide, silicon monoxide and molecular hydrogen. This surprised researchers, who expected that HH 211, like other bipolar jets, would consist mostly of single atoms or ions.

The team believes that because the material flows relatively slowly, the jets eject molecules rather than atoms and ions. Higher speeds are more likely to break molecules into individual atoms and ions. Why HH 211’s jets were slower than other bipolar aircraft “remains a mystery at this time,” Ray said.

Another striking part of the new image is the “wiggling” tendrils of gas and dust located in the center of the base of each jet (the part closest to the protostar). This uneven distribution of material seen in both jets may indicate that the protostar has an unresolved binary star; Another protostar that could potentially develop into a companion star, according to NASA. However, this hypothesis needs further investigation.

JWST’s level of detail is unmatched. NASA said the new photo has a spatial resolution five to ten times higher than other images of HH 211. It’s another example of how JWST can reveal additional secrets about already well-studied space structures, Ray said. JWST also made headlines last week after detecting potential signs of extraterrestrial life on an exoplanet located about 120 light-years from Earth.