00:00The process of star formation is a wild one, with dense clouds of cosmic gas and dust accreting into a large mass,
00:10where eventually the gravity of itself collapses in heaps, causing a fusion reaction.
00:15Scientists knew this long before it was ever observed in the cosmos.
00:18But now astronomers have turned the James Webb Space Telescope towards what they call stellar nurseries.
00:23And it's giving us not only epic images like these,
00:26it's also furthering our understanding of star formation in general.
00:30The researchers liken the experience to taking anthropological observations of living cultures,
00:35versus finding buried archaeological relics from them long after they've gone.
00:39This image of the cosmic cliffs has revealed that it's actually a gigantic hollow structure.
00:44Inside, it hosts huge infant stars, whose extreme radiation and stellar winds have literally carved out the cave in which they currently reside.
00:51On the flip side, some stellar nurseries are extremely dense, like this one.
00:55This is what is often referred to as the dark cloud L1527, where at its center a baby or protostar is being born as we watch.
01:04The James Webb Space Telescope is also revealing how turbulent stellar births are as well, especially with the likes of this one.
01:10It shows what's called a Herbig Haro object, a structure which is created when a protostar's stellar winds send a shockwave through nearby dust and gas clouds.
01:19Just a few of the many new images from James Webb, of no doubt many, many more.
01:24Let's go back and see you guys.
01:25Let's look back.
01:29Let's go back.
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