As estrelas em formação Herbig-Haro 46/47 são bem conhecidas e frequentemente observadas pelos astrónomos, mas desta vez coube a James Webb vê-las através das suas lentes NIRCam.
Captada em luz infravermelha, capaz de trespassar a poeira espacial com mais facilidade do que a luz "normal", é a imagem de maior resolução das estrelas gémeas já vista nestes comprimentos de onda.
Herbig-Haro 46/47O são jovens. Tecnicamente ainda não “nasceram”, o que é assinalado quando as estrelas começam a brilhar em resultado da sua própria fusão nuclear. Relativamente próximas da Terra, a cerca de 1.400 anos-luz, pensa-se que possam fornecer pistas sobre a formação do Sol.
Apesar de toda a beleza captada por James Webb, as estrelas gémeas em formação acabaram por quase ficar para segundo plano, quando alguém reparou que a imagem tinha sido “photobombed”.
O “emplastro” que surge para roubar o protagonismo a Herbig-Haro 46/47 - ainda não sabemos se intencionalmente ou sem querer - assemelha-se a um ponto de interrogação vermelho e pode ver-se no centro inferior da imagem.
O objeto cósmico estará bastante longe da nossa vizinhança galáctica, possivelmente a milhares de milhões de anos-luz de distância, diz Christopher Britt, do Space Telescope Science Institute, que ajudou a planear essas observações e só foi captado graças à incrível sensibilidade do telescópio.
A hipótese mais consistente é que o ponto de interrogação seja a fusão de duas galáxias.
“Existem dois pontos mais brilhantes, um na curva e outro no ponto, que podem ser os núcleos galácticos ou os centros das galáxias”, diz o cientista, citado pela National Geographic.
A curva do ponto de interrogação pode ser formada pelas “caudas”, à medida que as duas galáxias espiralam uma em direção à outra.
Mas há outras suposições: também podem ser mais do que dois objetos cósmicos que estarão alinhados ou serem objetos que nem sequer se relacionam, estando um muito mais próximo da Terra do que o outro, isto porque estimar a distância com base apenas nas cores da imagem pode ser enganador, sublinha Christopher Britt.
Seria necessário investigar mais para identificar, exatamente, a que distância está o ponto de interrogação, mas é mais provável que este “emplastro espacial” permaneça um mistério, dado todo o arsenal de informação que o James Webb tem oferecido para análise.
À medida que avança pelo Espaço, o supertelescópio continua a ajudar a comunidade científica a descobrir os segredos do Universo.
Clique nas imagens para ver as melhores imagens captadas por James Webb
![This image of interacting galaxies Arp 142, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope’s NIRCam (Near-InfraRed Camera) and MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument), shows compass arrows, a scale bar, and a colour key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above). The scale bar is labelled in light-years, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes three years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 9.46 trillion kilometres. The scale bar is also labelled in arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal to an angular measurement of 1/3600 of one degree. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. (The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.) The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope. This image shows invisible near- and mid-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colours. The colour key shows which NIRCam and MIRI filters were used when collecting the light. The name of each filter is the visible light colour used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter. [Image description: Two interacting galaxies known as Arp 142. At left is NGC 2937, nicknamed the Egg for its appearance. At right is NGC 2936, nicknamed the Penguin for its appearance. The latter’s beak-like region points toward and above the Egg.]](https://mb.web.sapo.io/a4abd86df8fd1af368a46d5331c138ff3b2c13d7.jpg)
![This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows a portion of the GOODS-North field of galaxies. At the lower right, a pullout highlights the galaxy GN-z11, which is seen at a time just 430 million years after the Big Bang. The image reveals an extended component, tracing the GN-z11 host galaxy, and a central, compact source whose colours are consistent with those of an accretion disc surrounding a black hole. [Image description: A rectangular image with thousands of galaxies of various shapes and colours on the black background of space. Some are noticeably spirals, either face-on or edge-on, while others are blobby ellipticals. Many are too small to discern any structure. One prominent foreground star at top centre features Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes. At lower right, a small region is highlighted with a white box. Vertical lines extend upward like a cone to the bottom corners of a larger box at upper right, showing a zoomed-in version of the highlighted area. The pullout features a galaxy labelled GN-z11, seen as a fuzzy yellow dot. Above it is another galaxy, seen as a fuzzy red oval.]](http://mb.web.sapo.io/f6f30cda88cbe87e155871ba5170c9132f94fd15.jpg)
![This two-part graphic shows evidence of a gaseous clump of helium in the halo surrounding the galaxy GN-z11. In the top portion, at the far right, a small box identifies GN-z11 in a field of galaxies. The middle box shows a zoomed-in image of the galaxy. The box at the far left displays a map of the helium gas in the halo of GN-z11, including a clump that does not appear in the infrared colours shown in the middle panel. In the lower half of the graphic, a spectrum shows the distinct ‘fingerprint’ of helium in the halo. The full spectrum shows no evidence of other elements and so suggests that the helium clump must be fairly pristine, made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium gas left over from the Big Bang, without much contamination from heavier elements produced by stars. Theory and simulations in the vicinity of particularly massive galaxies from these epochs predict that there should be pockets of pristine gas surviving in the halo, and these may collapse and form Population III star clusters. [Image description: A graphic labelled Galaxy GN-z11, Pristine Gas Clump Near GN-z11. The graphic is divided into two sections. The top half of the graphic features a rectangular image of a field of galaxies with two pullouts, the second of them labelled Helium Two Detected. The bottom half shows a single line graph.]](http://mb.web.sapo.io/e88335c0ecb525e2977cdb7fda8db35d60433f94.jpg)
![This image of the GOODS-North field, captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), shows compass arrows, a scale bar, and a colour key for reference. The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above). The scale bar is labelled in angular distance on the sky, where one arcsecond is one 3600th of a degree. The scale bar is 60 arcseconds long. This image shows invisible near-infrared wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colours. The colour key shows which NIRCam filters were used when collecting the light. The colour of each filter name is the visible light colour used to represent the infrared light that passes through that filter. [Image description: A rectangular image shows thousands of galaxies of various shapes and colours on the black background of space. The pullout features a galaxy labelled GN-z11, seen as a fuzzy yellow dot. Above it is another galaxy, seen as a fuzzy red oval. To the left of the small box, a scale bar is labelled 60 arcseconds. It extends about one tenth of the way across the image. Below the image, a list of NIRCam filters show what colours were used to make the image. Filters shown in blue are F090W, F115W, and F150W. Filters shown in green are F200W, F277W, and F335M. Filters shown in red are F356W, F410M, and F444W.]](http://mb.web.sapo.io/e5b881b601f585337061240e616183a872385437.jpg)
![This image from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument shows a portion of the GOODS-North field of galaxies. [Image description: A rectangular image with thousands of galaxies of various shapes and colours on the black background of space. Some are noticeably spirals, either face-on or edge-on, while others are blobby ellipticals. Many are too small to discern any structure. One prominent foreground star at top centre features Webb’s signature eight-point diffraction spikes.]](http://mb.web.sapo.io/2041446b9a53fd51681679e5383d06e674e14b2e.jpg)
No total, o Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) já lista mais de 700 estudos feitos diretamente com base em dados e imagens captados pelo James Webb, isto só ao longo de um ano de atividade, comemorado recentemente.
Concebido para operar por entre cinco a dez anos, o telescópio espacial poderá vir a duplicar o seu tempo de missão científica, depois de uma poupança de combustível significativa, conseguida no arranque.
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