NASA's Webb Telescope Captures Sweeping View of Star-Forming Region IC 348
One of the largest images yet released from the James Webb Space Telescope reveals brown dwarfs as light as twice Jupiter's mass in a nearby stellar nursery.
NASA has released a new panoramic image from the James Webb Space Telescope showing the star-forming region IC 348, according to NASA Breaking News. The agency described the image as one of the largest released to date from the Webb mission.
IC 348 is a nearby region of active star formation that astronomers have used to search for brown dwarfs, celestial objects that are less massive than the smallest true stars, NASA said.
According to NASA, researchers using Webb discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as roughly twice that of Jupiter within the region. NASA said this finding extends the known range of such low-mass objects.
The observations are part of ongoing efforts by astronomers to study star formation processes and to better understand the boundary between planets, brown dwarfs and stars, NASA said.
NASA did not provide additional details in the excerpt regarding the specific instruments used or the timeline for further analysis of the data.
Sources
- NASA’s Webb Reveals Dynamic Panorama of Star Formation — NASA Breaking News
EGazette summarizes reporting from multiple sources; follow the links for the originals.
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