The James Webb telescope has made an incredible discovery that may have pointed out something that humanity has missed in the past.
NASA’s latest jaw-dropper, snapped with what they call their “best ever detail,” shows what looks like an interstellar ice cream sundae with a cherry on top.
Seriously. NASA even describes it that way.
This spectacular image captures Herbig-Haro 49/50, or HH 49/50—a newborn star's energetic outflow that’s been nicknamed the “Cosmic Tornado” for its wild, swirling appearance, per Space.com.
First discovered back in 2006 by NASA’s now-retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the structure is a glowing cloud of gas and dust, shaped by a young protostar.
It’s located about 625 light-years from Earth in the constellation Chamaeleon. For the record, one light-year is about six trillion miles - so don’t expect to stumble into it on your morning jog.
What makes this image especially jaw-dropping is a stunning cosmic coincidence.
The dramatic jet of gas just happens to line up perfectly with a distant spiral galaxy, which looks like it’s part of the outflow but is actually completely unrelated.
As NASA put it: "Webb has captured these two unassociated objects in a lucky alignment." Over time, the outflow will drift outward and "eventually appear to cover up the distant galaxy."
Scientists have pinpointed the source of this interstellar showstopper: a protostar called Cederblad 110 IRS4, or CED 110 IRS4.
It’s roughly 1.5 light-years from the jet and is still in its infancy, just tens of thousands to a million years old.
As it grows, this young star sucks in material from its surrounding disk and shoots some of it out as jets along magnetic field lines. When those jets slam into surrounding material, they create glowing, shockwave-filled structures known as Herbig-Haro objects.
NASA explains: “The outflows, which can extend for light-years, plow into a denser region of material. This creates shock waves, heating the material to higher temperatures. The material then cools by emitting light at visible and infrared wavelengths.”
With Webb’s NIRCam and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), astronomers have captured every molecule of drama - literally.
The image glows with heated hydrogen and carbon monoxide, highlighted in orange and red, as well as energized dust grains lighting up the surrounding chaos.
The JWST’s sharp eye didn’t just deliver a pretty picture. It also helped astronomers trace the jet’s path back to its source, CED 110 IRS4. But here’s where things get weird: not all arcs of the jet align the same way.
A strange feature near the top of the outflow doesn’t seem to match up. Is it a second jet? A misfired ejection?
Scientists aren’t totally sure. One theory is that the main jet is breaking apart. Another suggests it could be due to precession - the slow, wobbly motion of the protostar’s jet over time.
So while the “cherry” on this sundae may look like a part of the HH 49/50 structure, NASA confirms it’s actually a distant spiral galaxy, photobombing the scene in spectacular fashion.
Beyond the beauty, HH 49/50 offers a rare peek into the chaos of star birth.
The Chamaeleon I Cloud complex, where it all goes down, is one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth. It’s thought to be similar to the environment where our own Sun first lit up billions of years ago.