NASA's Webb Captures Supersonic Outflow of Young Star

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has captured a high-resolution, near-infrared view of Herbig-Haro 211, offering intricate insights into the outflow from a young star akin to our Sun in its infancy. Herbig-Haro objects are created when the forceful ejections of gas from newborn stars generate shock waves upon colliding with nearby gas and dust at high velocities. This image offers an unprecedented level of detail and reveals a sequence of bow shocks in the southeast (lower-left) and northwest (upper-right) regions driven by a narrow bipolar jet. Molecules within this turbulent environment, such as molecular hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and silicon monoxide, emit infrared light, which the Webb telescope collects to create a map outlining the structure of these outflows.