The Math Blaster Blog

On Tuesday, March 19, the Herschel Space Observatory discovered some of the youngest stars scientists had ever witnessed. Thanks to NASA JPL’s Herschel Project Office, a European Space Agency mission, astronomers were able to view one of the largest sets of stars in a single-star forming region. Because of these results, scientists are now one step closer to discovering the formation of a star in its initial phase.

Scientists utilized the Herschel Photo detector Array Camera and Spectrometer instrument to collect infrared light at 70 and 160 micrometers in wavelength. This allowed them to compare precious scans of the star-forming in Orion. According to NASA JPL:

“Herschel spied the protostars in far-infrared, or long-wavelength, light, which can shine through the dense clouds around burgeoning stars that block out higher-energy, shorter wavelengths, including the light our eyes see.”

These observations made recently are able to provide a one of a kind observation that will provide scientists to build on from previous observations. Their discoveries on Tuesday included things no other space agency had ever seen. These gas-like, dust particles that surrounded the stars always challenged scientists from the beginning. Previous studies were not able to detect these protostars due to its cold and dense environment. Therefore, it had been difficult to observe some of the earlier star formations due to its physical conditions. However, these newly observed protostars came as a shock and turned out to be the initial starting point of star formations near the constellation, Orion. Now, scientists are able to dig deep into the earlier phases of star formation.

Among the 15 newly discovered protostars, 11 are colored red. What this means is that their light output trends toward the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum. These stars are considered to be at a very young stage in life; something scientists have not been able to observe until this recent discovery.

With this new finding, researchers are now aiming to record every stage of a star’s development. If your child is interested in science, have them check out some of our math activities. Encourage your children to exercise their scientific and mathematical minds every day.

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