Protostar L1527 has been observed by the JWST in near-infrared, revealing in fiery colors how this fledgling star is literally carving a space for itself in the nebula from which it formed. However, those wavelengths were not enough to penetrate the thick dust that surrounded the protostar – to finally see the protostar, the telescope used its mid-infrared instrument, revealing much more than just the source of this spectacle.

Protostars are not full stars yet. They are continuing to accrete mass, and this process creates dramatic outflows. L1527 is 100,000 years old and it is taking material from a protoplanetary disk, the thin dark line seen in the new image. Some of the material escapes the star along its axis of rotation, forming the outflows.

The outflows have energy, and as they rush away from the protostar, they slam into the surrounding medium of the nebula. The interaction creates bow shocks, the filaments seen throughout the image. The outflow also carves the hourglass shape and excites the molecules in the interstellar space, making it glow in infrared.

From the mid-infrared observations, astronomers spot three interesting regions. 

In red at the center, the protostar and the dense blanket of dust and gas that surrounds it (the red extensions are an artifact of the telescope optics). Next to the red region, in white, there is more dust, as well as hydrocarbons and ionized neon. This did not appear in the near-infrared, but it is evidence of the messy nature of the accretion process. The matter that makes up the disk is propelled far away.

Finally, in blue, we can see the spread of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons stretching far from the protostar and into interstellar space. As the star ages and continues to accrete, it will push a lot of this material away. This interaction with the wider nebula can affect the formation of other stars, in some cases hindering it while in others possibly helping them form. 

There is much more to learn about the star formation process, but these observations provide incredible clues to how it unfolds.