![]() To probe Orion’s photo-dissociation region, an irradiated neutral zone located in the Orion Bar within the Orion Nebula, an active star-forming site found in the middle of the “sword” hanging from Orion’s “belt,” the team of astronomers used the W. “It was thrilling being the first, together with my colleagues of the ‘PDRs4All’ James Webb Space Telescope team, to see the sharpest images of the Orion Bar ever taken in the near infrared,” Carlos Alvarez, a staff astronomer at Keck Observatory and co-author of the study, said in the press release. Mapping this conversion is important because the dense, cold molecular gas is the fuel needed for star formation. The new Keck Observatory images will help deepen astronomers’ understanding of this process because they reveal in detail where gas in Orion’s photo-dissociation region changes from hot ionized gas to warm atomic and finally to cold molecular gas. ![]() Massive young stars emit large quantities of UV radiation that affect the physics and chemistry of their environment how this surge of energy impacts and shapes star formation is not yet well known. “This may allow us to better understand the heritage of the interstellar medium in planetary systems, namely our origins.” “Never before have we been able to observe at a small scale how interstellar matter structures depend on their environments, particularly how planetary systems could form in environments strongly irradiated by massive stars,” Emilie Habart, an Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale associate professor at Paris-Saclay University and lead author of a paper on the discover, said in a press release. ![]() This infrared image of Orion’s photo-dissociation region was captured by the Keck II telescope.
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