A new image from the high-tech James Webb telescope shows for the first time how massive streams of gas flow in the same direction in connection with the birth of stars, writes the US space agency Nasa.
The image depicts the young Serpens Nebula, 1,300 light-years from Earth.
The so-called jet streams, in the left part of the image above, are gas flowing out from newly formed stars and colliding with other gas and space dust. On the image, one can see how flows from several stars go in the same direction – an important detail for astronomers.
"Astronomers have long assumed that when (gas) clouds collapse and form stars, the stars will spin in the same direction. But it's something we previously couldn't see so clearly," says Nasa researcher Klaus Pontoppidan to the authority's website.
Stars are formed when gravity pulls together interstellar gas clouds rich in space dust, causing them to collapse in on themselves. In connection with this, they spew out some of the gas.
