Post by Udeze Nestor (@Nesmoore1)

A "cosmic tornado"
by James Webb 🌪

Such structures form when streams of material ejected by forming stars crash into nearby clouds of gas and dust, creating shock waves that intensely heat the plasma and dust. As they cool, they emit light in the visible and infrared wavelengths.

The protostar that ejected all this magnificence is not visible here; it's actually in the lower right corner. It could become a star in a million years, or a thousand, or the star has already ignited, but its light hasn't reached us—it's 630 light-years away. The other end of the "tornado" appears to be aimed directly at the center of the spiral galaxy, but the galaxy is, of course, much further away, millions of light-years away.

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