Hidden away in this James Webb Space Telescope image of Herbig-Haro 46/47 is a bizarre galactic question mark. What you’re looking at was captured in high-resolution near-infrared light using Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and is made up of several exposures, highlighting distant galaxies and stars.
Photo credit: NASA | Space.com
Webb’s NIRCam lets astronomers peer through its gauzy layers, showing off a lot more of Herbig-Haro 46/47, while also uncovering a deep range of stars and galaxies that lie far beyond it. The blue nebula that you see also influences the shapes of the orange jets shot out by the central stars. Over the course of millions of years, the stars in Herbig-Haro 46/47 will eventually fully form.
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It is probably a distant galaxy, or potentially interacting galaxies (their interactions may have caused the distorted question mark-shape). This may be the first time we’ve seen this particular object,” STScI added. “Additional follow-up would be required to figure out what it is with any certainty. Webb is showing us many new, distant galaxies — so there’s a lot of new science to be done!,” said the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) to Space[.]com.
