![The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a high-resolution image of a tightly bound pair of actively forming stars, known as Herbig-Haro 46/47, in near-infrared light. Look for them at the centre of the red diffraction spikes. The stars are buried deeply, appearing as an orange-white splotch. They are surrounded by a disc of gas and dust that continues to add to their mass. Herbig-Haro 46/47 is an important object to study because it is relatively young ??? only a few thousand years old. Stars take millions of years to form. Targets like this also give researchers insight into how stars gather mass over time, potentially allowing them to model how our own Sun, a low-mass star, formed. The two-sided orange lobes were created by earlier ejections from these stars. The stars??? more recent ejections appear as blue, thread-like features, running along the angled diffraction spike that covers the orange lobes. Actively forming stars ingest the gas and dust that immediately surrounds them in a disc (imagine an edge-on circle encasing them). When the stars ???eat??? too much material in too short a time, they respond by sending out two-sided jets along the opposite axis, settling down the star???s spin, and removing mass from the area. Over millennia, these ejections regulate how much mass the stars retain. Don???t miss the delicate, semi-transparent blue cloud. This is a region of dense dust and gas, known as a nebula. Webb???s crisp near-infrared image lets us see through its gauzy layers, showing off a lot more of Herbig-Haro 46/47, while also revealing a wide range of stars and galaxies that lie far beyond it. The nebula???s edges transform into a soft orange outline, like a backward L along the right and bottom of the image. The blue nebula influences the shapes of the orange jets shot out by the central stars. As ejected material rams into the nebula on the lower left, it takes on wider shapes, because there is more opportunity for the jets to interact with molecules within the nebula. Its material also causes the stars??? ejections to light up. Over millions of years the stars in Herbig-Haro 46/47 will form fully ??? clearing the scene. Take a moment to linger on the background. A profusion of extremely distant galaxies dot Webb???s view. Its composite NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) image is made up of several exposures, highlighting distant galaxies and stars. Blue objects with diffraction spikes are stars, and the closer they are, the larger they appear. White-and-pink spiral galaxies sometimes appear larger than these stars, but are significantly farther away. The tiniest red dots, Webb???s infrared specialty, are often the oldest, most distant galaxies. [Image description: At the centre is a thin horizontal orange cloud tilted from bottom left to top right. It takes up about two-thirds of the length of this angle, but is thin at the opposite angle. At its centre is a set of very large red and pink diffraction spikes in Webb???s familiar eight-pointed pattern. It has a central yellow-white blob, which hides two tightly orbiting stars. The background is filled with stars and galaxies.]](https://i0.wp.com/images.newscientist.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/05120544/SEI_170094513.jpg?resize=900%2C600&ssl=1)
The usual mannequin of particle physics can not clarify darkish matter or darkish vitality, which collectively make up 95 per cent of the cosmos
NASA, ESA, CSA, J. DePasquale (STScI)
IN 1973, physicist Steven Weinberg gave a chat in Aix-en-Provence, France. It was there, based on Weinberg, that he first used the time period “customary mannequin” to explain the nascent description of the elemental constituents of the universe and their interactions. Fifty years on, the usual mannequin of particle physics is a stunningly correct image of what every part is product of and the way it all works to supply actuality.
Virtually every part, anyway. As a result of though the fiftieth anniversary is effectively price celebrating, it’s unattainable to disregard the truth that the idea is incomplete. It doesn’t clarify gravity, or why we’ve a lot matter within the universe and so little antimatter. And it says nothing about so-called darkish matter and darkish vitality, postulated to elucidate why the cosmos behaves in sure methods.
Because of this physicists are casting round for clues that would lead us to a greater principle. However which, if any, will ship an improve to the usual mannequin? How do we discover the deluxe model? We let six of immediately’s main physicists clarify how they assume we are going to lastly uncover a extra full image of actuality.
Collisions on the vitality frontier
Jon Butterworth
College School London
It’s all the time dangerous to wager in opposition to the usual mannequin of particle physics. Traditionally, most individuals who’ve accomplished so have misplaced. However over the following decade and a half, the Massive Hadron Collider (LHC) will proceed …
