NASA's Webb Reveals Secrets of the 'Cosmic Tornado'

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has solved the 19-year mystery of the "Cosmic Tornado," a strange, twisteresque object some 630 light years from Earth.

First seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2006, the tornado is what scientists call a "Herbig-Haro" object: an energetic outflow associated with the formation of a nearby star.

Jets from the infant star produce massive outflows of material. When these enter denser regions of space, shockwaves result, heating the material and causing it to emit light.

The power of JWST—the largest telescope ever launched into space—has allowed astronomers to confirm that the body of the "tornado" is indeed an outflow, while the previously unclear object seen at its tip is a spiral galaxy in the background.

The pair are not actually connected, but are just aligned by chance when viewed from our solar system. In thousands of years, in fact, the edge of Herbig-Haro 49/50 will expand outwards and cover up the galaxy behind it.

The JWST is operated by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

"With its higher imaging resolution, Webb provides a different visual impression of HH 49/50," the ESA said in a statement.

The JWST's observations, it added, are "revealing fine features of the shocked regions in the outflow, uncovering the fuzzy object to be a distant spiral galaxy and displaying a sea of distant background galaxies."

Past studies of HH 49/50 have determined that the material in the tornado is moving away from us at speeds of around 223,200–669,600 miles per hour and that such is just one part of a much larger outflow of material.

The newly released image of the Cosmic Tornado is a composite of observations from two of Webb's instruments—the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)—which could help astronomers learn more about how young stars affect their surroundings.

HH 49/50 is located in the constellation Chamaeleon, within the so-called Chamaeleon I Cloud complex—one of the nearest active star forming regions to Earth.

The cloud is likely a similar environment to that in which our Sun originally formed; in fact it is presently creating numerous stars with masses similar to our own.

In the JWST image, flowing hydrogen and carbon monoxide molecules—alongside energized grains of dust—are visualized in orange and red.

Meanwhile, arc-shaped features in the outflow, which are analogous to the wake created behind a speeding boat, largely point towards its source; this is believed to be the protostar Cederblad 110 IRS4, some 1.5 light-years distant.

Some arcs, however, have a different orientation—suggesting that either the outflow is breaking apart, or that there are different outflows there superimposed on each other.

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