The James Webb Space Telescope captures a breathtaking image of the enchanting Flame Nebula.

      Our universe contains numerous beautiful and captivating objects, and we are fortunate to observe many of them through advanced instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope. A recent image from Webb presents a fresh perspective of the stunning Flame Nebula, an emission nebula situated in the Orion constellation.

      This nebula serves as a bustling stellar nursery, where many new stars are being born. However, in this instance, researchers focused not on stars, but on objects known as brown dwarfs. Larger than most planets yet smaller than stars, brown dwarfs are too small to maintain fusion in their cores, earning them the label of failed stars.

      The researchers aimed to investigate the boundary between stars and brown dwarfs. Specifically, they sought to determine the mass required for an object to initiate fusion and evolve into a star.

      “The objective of this project was to explore the fundamental low-mass limit of the star and brown dwarf formation process. With Webb, we can examine the faintest and lowest mass objects,” stated lead study author Matthew De Furio from the University of Texas at Austin.

      This near-infrared image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope highlights three low-mass objects, visible in the insets to the right. These objects, which are significantly cooler than protostars, necessitate the sensitivity of Webb’s instruments for detection. They were analyzed as part of an initiative to investigate the lowest mass threshold of brown dwarfs within the Flame Nebula. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Meyer (University of Michigan)

      In this Webb image, three brown dwarfs are prominently featured. Although they may resemble protostars, these specific objects are precisely what the researchers aimed to study.

      Stars and brown dwarfs originate from vast clouds of material known as molecular clouds, which fragment into smaller parts. When these fragments are compressed by gravity, they heat up, and with sufficient material, they can transform into stars. However, hot objects consistently emit radiation, making it crucial to comprehend the thermal output to delineate the difference between forming a star and forming a brown dwarf.

      “The cooling of these clouds is critical because if there is enough internal energy, it can counteract gravity,” described fellow researcher Michael Meyer from the University of Michigan. “If the clouds cool efficiently, they collapse and fragment.”

      The researchers believe that the boundary for star formation versus brown dwarf formation may occur at approximately two to three times the mass of Jupiter. However, locating these relatively small objects for data collection is challenging, leading them to utilize information from both the Hubble Space Telescope and Webb.

      “Conducting this research, particularly observing brown dwarfs down to even ten Jupiter masses, from the ground is very challenging, especially in regions like this,” said De Furio. “Having decades of Hubble data allowed us to identify this star-forming region as a valuable target. We needed Webb to explore this specific scientific inquiry.”

      This series of images from the Flame Nebula illustrates a near-infrared view from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on the left, with the two insets on the right displaying the near-infrared perspective captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Much of the dark, dense gas and dust, along with the surrounding white clouds in the Hubble image, have been cleared in the Webb images, revealing a more transparent cloud penetrated by young stars and brown dwarfs that emit infrared radiation. Astronomers utilized Webb to catalog the lowest-mass objects in this star-forming region. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Meyer (University of Michigan), Matthew De Furio (UT Austin), Massimo Robberto (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

      This figure presents data from both Hubble and Webb, demonstrating how the two instruments complement each other.

      “There has been a significant advancement in our understanding compared to what we gathered from Hubble,” remarked Massimo Robberto of the Space Telescope Science Institute. “Webb is truly unlocking a new array of possibilities to comprehend these objects.”

      The findings are published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.