James Webb Telescope: a team from Toulouse publishes the magnificent first images of the Orion Nebula

the essential Toulouse researchers from IRAP (Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology) are associated with the revelation of the first images of the Orion Nebula by the new James Webb space telescope. A spectacular dive into the nearest star nursery in the Solar System. Launched on December 25, 2021, the James Webb Space Telescope observes the Universe with incredibly capable eyes. Olivier Berné, astrophysicist at IRAP, the Institute for Astrophysics and Planetology Research in Toulouse, coordinates a research team that uses the first data provided by the instrument. He has just received the first observations of the Orion Nebula, the nearest star nursery, 1350 light years away. This area was chosen to understand how stars and planetary systems are formed. The first images of the Orion Nebula by the James Webb Telescope look incredible. What is your look? We discover our observations but by going immediately to the detail and comparing with the images previously taken by the Hubble telescope. It is of course similar but very different. The work obtained with the observations of the James Webb telescope allows to have more contrast, details and depth, we can now see the three dimensions of the Orion nebula. Read also: Toulouse researchers will be the first to use the James Webb telescope Why this difference? Thanks to the observation in infrared light, young stars can be seen very well. In the images of the Orion Nebula taken by Hubble, there are plenty of invisible stars. There, we have the impression of discovering unknown objects… We are going to check if they are in the Hubble catalog established in the 1990s. Infrared observation is very difficult to do from the ground, the spectrometer must be efficient and also requires a high angular resolution, the James Webb telescope meets these conditions. The inner region of the Orion Nebula as seen by both the Hubble Space Telescope (left) and the James Webb Space Telescope (right). © NASA/ESA/CSA/PDRs4All ERS Team/Salomé Fuenmayor/Olivier Berné The reworked image also shows what you call filaments. What is it about ? These filament structures are probably created by the turbulent movements of gas within the nebula. Newborn stars cause winds and the interaction of this wind creates dynamic effects, a bit like ripples on the surface of water. This turbulence probably has an impact on the way stars form, or rather on why so few stars form in our galaxy. We speak of the feedback of massive stars on their environment by mechanical effect or heating effect. What work is there behind the image released on Monday? Hours of work! With Amélie Canin, engineer at IRAP and Ilane Schroetter, post-doctoral student at IRAP, we received the raw data on Sunday, we converted them, assembled them and with the help of a graphic designer we obtained this colorful composition . All this in less than 24 hours and thanks to several months of preparation. To read also: “The James Webb Space Telescope opens a new window on the Universe” Was aiming for the Orion Nebula the right choice? Yes, we are convinced of it, even if at the beginning the James Webb telescope was designed to make images of very distant galaxies and not for very luminous regions like Orion. We were even told that it was not possible and that we were going to saturate everything! In fact, we can observe Orion with James Webb and that will bring something. It is an extremely rich region, it is there that it is necessary to make observations to understand the formation of stars. Half of the observations of our research program were made this weekend, they will continue until the beginning of November. We feel privileged to use what some call the telescope of the century, the most powerful instrument ever built by man to observe the sky in its first moments. The core of the Orion Nebula seen by the James Webb Space Telescope in September 2022. © NASA/ESA/CSA/PDRs4All ERS Team/Salomé Fuenmayor These images are magnificent communication tools, but you also work from other data ? Yes, we have started to study curves, spectra of planetary systems forming in this nebula. It’s less visual but for us it’s the most interesting! Thanks to the measurements of the spectrometers which break down the light of the observed objects, we have already identified molecules of water, carbon and perhaps other elements whose composition we seek to understand. At the Toulouse level, the team working on the “Early Release Science” program of the James Webb telescope is made up of scientists from the Institute for Research in Astrophysics and Planetology of Toulouse (IRAP), the Computer Research Institute of Toulouse (IRIT) and the Laboratory of Chemistry and Quantum Physics of Toulouse (LCPQ) with the support of CNES, National Center for Space Studies. At the international level, the project is co-piloted with the IAS (Orsay) and the University of London (Canada).