The James Webb Space Telescope has captured an extraordinary image of a young star, HH 30, which may be the birthplace of a new solar system. Located 450 light-years away in the Taurus Molecular Cloud, HH 30 is a Herbig-Haro object – a bright knot of gas formed by shockwaves from colliding gas streams.
Scientists are studying this gassy knot to understand how dust grains and massive jets combine to form planets. The grain sizes range from tiny (about 1/100th the size of a bacterium) to large concentrations in dense parts of the disk.
Stars take millions of years to form, growing from turbulent clouds to glowing protostars before materializing into giant orbs like our sun. Scientists believe that planets form when dust and gas particles collide, snowballing over time until they reach their final forms.
To study HH 30’s edge-on disk, researchers combined infrared data with longer-wavelength observations using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope and the Hubble Space Telescope. This revealed a breathtakingly detailed view of dust movement across the disk, showing migration and settling to form planet beginnings.
The study shows HH 30 as a dynamic place where tiny dust grains and massive jets play roles in new planet formation.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/space/astronomy/stunning-rainbow-colored-object-spotted-by-james-webb-telescope-could-be-an-alien-solar-system-in-the-making