Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered a peculiar group of baby stars emitting massive gas jets in nearly the same direction. This finding could provide new insights into star formation.
For the first time, the JWST has captured a direct image of protostellar outflows — high-speed gas jets released by newborn stars. These jets interact with surrounding molecular gas clouds, charging the material. The puzzling part of this discovery is that the jets from multiple stars appear to be aligned in the same direction, even though the stars are far apart.
Described in the *Astrophysical Journal*, these observations could shed light on star formation and evolution. Principal investigator Klaus Pontoppidan from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory stated that while it’s been assumed stars formed in the same spinning direction, this alignment has never been observed so clearly before.
The stars are located in the Serpens Main nebula, a star-forming gas cloud in the Serpens constellation, about 1,300 light-years from Earth. Using JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), astronomers observed the ionized gas trails pushing through the cloud.
The image revealed at least 20 newborn stars emitting protostellar outflows. Twelve of these stars, in the upper left corner of the image, displayed jets oriented in nearly the same direction. The outflows began between 200 to 1,400 years ago.
Such alignment is unlikely to be random. Researchers believe the stars formed around the same time along a dense gas filament, influenced by a powerful magnetic field guiding the jets. Over time, interactions with other objects cause the jets to deviate, explaining why such perfect alignment hasn’t been seen before.
Further studies using JWST’s Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIR Spec) will explore the chemical composition of the Serpens Main nebula, providing more details on star and solar system formation.
