This starry view of the nearby star-forming region IC 348 is one of the largest images released to date from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Using Webb, astronomers searched IC 348 for brown dwarfs, which are less massive than the smallest stars. The researchers discovered brown dwarfs just twice the mass of Jupiter, bringing the study of these curious objects into a new mass range and revealing new insights about the star formation process.
这张附近恒星形成区 IC 348 的星空图是 NASA 詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜迄今为止发布的最大图像之一。天文学家利用韦伯望远镜在 IC 348 中搜索褐矮星，它们的质量小于最小的恒星。研究人员发现褐矮星的质量仅为木星的两倍，将这些奇怪天体的研究带入了一个新的质量范围，并揭示了有关恒星形成过程的新见解。
The star-forming region IC 348 is located just 1,000 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. In regions like IC 348, cold clouds of molecular hydrogen gas collapse to form new stars, creating glowing, sculpted scenes like this one. The star-formation process can create widely varied objects, from massive stars that expire after only a few million years in core-collapse supernova explosions to the smallest and most common stars, which are long lived and produce powerful stellar storms.
恒星形成区 IC 348 距离英仙座仅 1,000 光年。在像 IC 348 这样的区域，冷的氢气分子云坍塌形成新的恒星，创造出像这样的发光的、雕刻般的场景。恒星形成过程可以创造出各种各样的物体，从在核心塌缩超新星爆炸中仅几百万年后就消失的大质量恒星，到寿命很长并产生强大恒星风暴的最小和最常见的恒星。
The smallest stars weigh in at around 8 percent of the Sun’s mass. Below this mass lies a strange class of objects called brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs form in the same way stars do, through the collapse of molecular clouds. However, unlike stars, the cores of brown dwarfs never become hot enough to fuse ordinary hydrogen into helium (though many briefly fuse deuterium, or heavy hydrogen, early in their lives).
最小的恒星质量约为太阳质量的 8%。在这个质量下面存在着一类奇怪的物体，称为褐矮星。褐矮星的形成方式与恒星的形成方式相同，都是通过分子云的塌缩形成的。然而，与恒星不同的是，褐矮星的核心永远不会变得足够热，无法将普通氢聚变成氦（尽管许多褐矮星在生命早期会短暂聚变氘或重氢）。
What’s still not clear, and what researchers hoped to learn by using Webb’s sensitive instruments to study IC 348, is how small the smallest objects created by the star-formation process are. In other words, how small is the smallest brown dwarf?
目前尚不清楚的是，研究人员希望通过使用韦伯的敏感仪器研究 IC 348 来了解恒星形成过程中产生的最小物体有多小。换句话说，最小的褐矮星有多小？
Researchers seeking to answer this question first used Webb to study IC 348 in 2022, when they discovered brown dwarfs with masses as low as three to four times the mass of Jupiter . Now, the same research team has used Webb to probe even deeper into this region in search of even smaller brown dwarfs.
试图回答这个问题的研究人员在 2022 年首次使用韦伯研究 IC 348，当时他们发现了质量仅为木星质量三到四倍的褐矮星。现在，同一研究小组已经利用韦伯来更深入地探测该区域，以寻找更小的褐矮星。
The team used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) in 2024 to capture the warm glow of young brown dwarfs and newborn stars seen in this new image of IC 348. After selecting candidate brown dwarfs based on their colors and brightness, they followed up with Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) in 2025 to conduct spectroscopic observations to study the masses of the brown dwarfs.
研究小组于 2024 年使用韦伯的 NIRCam（近红外相机）捕捉到了这张 IC 348 新图像中看到的年轻褐矮星和新生恒星的温暖光芒。根据颜色和亮度选择候选褐矮星后，他们于 2025 年使用韦伯的 NIRSpec（近红外光谱仪）进行光谱观测，以研究褐矮星的质量。
These deep Webb observations revealed something remarkable to the researchers: brown dwarfs with masses as low as just twice the mass of Jupiter or only 0.19 percent of the Sun’s mass — far smaller than theory predicts brown dwarfs should be. These are the least massive brown dwarfs known and their existence poses a challenge to models of how stars form.
这些深韦伯观测结果向研究人员揭示了一些值得注意的事情：褐矮星的质量仅为木星质量的两倍，或者仅为太阳质量的 0.19%，远小于理论预测的褐矮星应有的质量。这些是已知质量最小的褐矮星，它们的存在对恒星形成的模型提出了挑战。
In addition to the discovery of these unexpectedly lightweight brown dwarfs, the Webb observations contained even more surprises. One of the lightest newfound brown dwarfs showed signs of a disk, suggesting that small planets could be forming around an object that is itself only the mass of a planet.
除了发现这些出乎意料的轻质褐矮星之外，韦伯观测还包含更多惊喜。新发现的最轻的褐矮星之一显示出圆盘的迹象，这表明小行星可能正在围绕一个本身只有行星质量的物体形成。
While inspecting the spectra of IC 348’s brown dwarfs, the research team also found a feature they attributed to an unidentified hydrocarbon — molecules made only of hydrogen and carbon atoms. This specific feature has only been seen in the atmospheres of the lowest-mass brown dwarfs, suggesting that these extreme objects might exist in a spectral class of their own.
在检查 IC 348 褐矮星的光谱时，研究小组还发现了一个他们归因于一种身份不明的碳氢化合物的特征——仅由氢和碳原子组成的分子。这种特殊特征仅在质量最低的棕矮星的大气中出现过，这表明这些极端物体可能存在于它们自己的光谱类别中。
The stars and brown dwarfs of IC 348 aren’t the only attractions in this image. A brilliantly detailed collection of protostars occupies the upper right corner. Several of these protostars are accompanied by Herbig-Haro objects, which are luminous regions that form when jets from growing newborn stars crash into the gas and dust around the star.
IC 348 的恒星和棕矮星并不是这张图片中唯一的吸引力。右上角是一组极其详细的原恒星集合。其中几颗原恒星都伴随着赫比格-哈罗天体，赫比格-哈罗天体是生长中的新生恒星的喷流撞击恒星周围的气体和尘埃时形成的发光区域。
The long, narrow feature that is oriented horizontally in this corner is the Herbig-Haro object HH 797 . Upon close inspection, this source is revealed to be two protostars with nearly parallel outflows. Just to the right of HH 797 is the propeller-shaped source HH 211 , which features both narrow jets and broader outflows.
该角水平方向的长而窄的特征是 Herbig-Haro 物体 HH 797 。经过仔细检查，发现这个源是两颗几乎平行流出的原恒星。 HH 797 的右侧是螺旋桨形状的源 HH 211，它具有狭窄的射流和更宽的流出物。
The data used to create this image comes from the Webb General Observer Program 4866 . In addition to studying the lowest-mass objects created through the star-formation process, this program also seeks to understand how the populations of planetary-mass objects like brown dwarfs vary between star-forming regions, as well as the origins of the hydrocarbon feature in the lowest-mass brown dwarfs.
用于创建此图像的数据来自韦伯普通观察者计划 4866。除了研究恒星形成过程中产生的质量最低的天体之外，该计划还试图了解像褐矮星这样的行星质量天体的数量在恒星形成区域之间如何变化，以及最低质量的褐矮星中碳氢化合物特征的起源。
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜是世界上首屈一指的太空科学天文台。韦伯正在解开太阳系中的谜团，展望其他恒星周围的遥远世界，并探索宇宙的神秘结构和起源以及我们在其中的位置。韦伯是由 NASA 及其合作伙伴 ESA（欧洲航天局）和 CSA（加拿大航天局）领导的一项国际计划。
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View more: Chandra and Webb composite of the star-forming region IC 348
查看更多：恒星形成区 IC 348 的钱德拉和韦伯合成图
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