Our universe is host to many beautiful and absorbing objects , and we ’re prosperous enough to be able to view many of them using high technical school instruments like the James Webb Space Telescope . A new Webb image shows a raw view of the gorgeousFlame Nebula , an emission nebula located in the configuration of Orion .

This nebula is a busy stellar nursery , with many new star topology being organize there . But it is n’t star which researchers were interested in when they looked to the nebula — in this case , they were studying objects called browned dwarfs . liberal than most planets but littler than a star , brownish dwarfs are too small to sustain unification in their cores , so they are often referred to as die stars .

Researchers wanted to learn about where the personal line of credit is between a superstar and a chocolate-brown dwarf . Just how much mass is necessary for an aim to initiate nuclear fusion reaction and become a virtuoso ?

“ The end of this project was to search the central down - mass demarcation of the virtuoso and chocolate-brown nanus formation mental process . With Webb , we ’re able-bodied to poke into the faint and lowest aggregate objects , ” said star cogitation source Matthew De Furio of the University of Texas at Austin in astatement .

In this Webb image , three brown dwarfs are highlighted . While they may look like other baby stars , shout out protostars , these particular object are exactly what the researchers were concerned in .

champion and brown dwarfs form from large cloud of stuff call molecular clouds , which break apart into small clump prognosticate fragment . When these fragments are under pressure from gravity they heat up , and if there is enough cloth then they will become adept . But spicy objective are constantly radiating , so the amount of heat they give off is authoritative to understand where the line is between constitute a genius versus make a chocolate-brown dwarf .

“ The cooling of these clouds is important because if you have enough home energy , it will fight that gravity , ” explained fellow research worker Michael Meyer of the University of Michigan . “ If the clouds cool down efficiently , they collapse and fracture aside . ”

The investigator think that the terminal point between forming a star versus a brown midget may be at around two to three time the mass of Jupiter . But it ’s hard to find these comparatively small objects for them to gather data from , so they used information from the Hubble Space Telescope as well as Webb to get more data .

“ It ’s really difficult to do this oeuvre , looking at chocolate-brown dwarfs down to even ten Jupiter pile , from the land , especially in region like this , ” enunciate De Furio . “ And having be Hubble information over the last 30 years or so allow us to know that this is a really useful wiz - forming region to target . We needed to have Webb to be able-bodied to analyze this particular skill topic . ”

This figure demonstrate data from both Hubble and Webb , highlighting how the two instruments can work together .

“ It ’s a quantum saltation in our capableness between understanding what was going on from Hubble , ” said Massimo Robberto of the Space Telescope Science Institute . “ Webb is really opening an all new realm of possibilities , understanding these objects . ”

The research is published inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters .