Little star, big chaos. A glimpse of our sun 4.6 billion years ago

The James Webb Space Telescope's observations provide us with an idea of how our Sun might have appeared 4.6 billion years ago, just tens of thousands of years after its birth. An unusual object named HH212 conceals a young star within, emitting sizeable streams.

The intriguing object, known as HH212, located by the James Webb Space Telescope, likely harbors a very young star in the early stages of development. If we could picture our Sun at the start of its journey, roughly 4.6 billion years ago, we might see a similar event. However, the protostar remains hidden in a dense, rotating disc of gas and dust. While most of this mass will likely be absorbed by it, some might transform into planets and planetoids akin to those in our current Solar System.

HH212 is positioned in our sky near the Orion constellation, more specifically, near the three bright stars forming Orion's belt. From Earth, it's approximately 8047 light-years away. The protostar is still going through an internal formation process that makes it highly unstable. This instability is evidenced by jets that are launched from their magnetic poles.

As per astrophysicists, these jets of gases serve as a self-regulation method for a star in the throes of birth. Gases within the celestial body must reduce momentum during their rotational movement and are pushed by a magnetic field toward the poles, from which they launch at high velocities.

The pink-red nebula visible in the photo, colorized by NASA specialists, indicates large quantities of expelled hydrogen from the star. Electromagnetic waves emitted from the protostar illuminate these hydrogen clouds, allowing the Webb Telescope to capture them in the infrared band. Because of this, we are unable to see the concealed young star at the center, hidden by a dense disk of gas and dust.

HH212 has been a subject of study for astronomers for the past 30 years. However, the deployment of the James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled several new details. The telescope’s view is more than ten times sharper compared to previous observations of this celestial object. Thanks to this advanced telescope, we can now capture images that reveal molecular hydrogen in the clouds on either side of the star. The observation wavelength of 2.12 microns (which partially explains the object's name) allows astronomers to decipher precisely what is happening within the jets ejected by the protostar.