Webb telescope captures stunning detail of star-forming region near Milky Way’s center
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new views of Sagittarius B2, the Milky Way’s most massive star nursery, showing stars, glowing dust and dense clouds in sharper detail than ever before.
Stars, gas and cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud glow in near-infrared light, captured by Webb’s NIRCam instrument. The darkest areas of the image are not empty space but are areas where stars are still forming inside dense clouds that block their light. Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Adam Ginsburg (University of Florida), Nazar Budaiev (University of Florida), Taehwa Yoo (University of Florida); Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a striking new view of the Milky Way’s busiest stellar nursery, revealing stars and glowing clouds of dust in unprecedented detail.
The image focuses on Sagittarius B2, the most massive and active star-forming region in our galaxy, located just a few hundred light-years from the supermassive black hole at the galactic center.
“Webb’s powerful infrared instruments provide detail we’ve never been able to see before, which will help us to understand some of the still-elusive mysteries of massive star formation and why Sagittarius B2 is so much more active than the rest of the galactic center,” said Adam Ginsburg of the University of Florida, principal investigator of the program.
Webb’s mid-infrared camera, called MIRI, revealed glowing dust heated by young stars, as well as portions of the cloud so dense that even the powerful telescope could not see through them. These thick, dark regions are where future stars will eventually form.
A companion image from Webb’s near-infrared camera, NIRCam, highlights bright stars shining against the backdrop of gas and dust. Comparing the two views helps astronomers better understand how stars are born in this crowded, complex environment.
Although Sagittarius B2 contains only about 10 percent of the gas in the galactic center, it produces half of the region’s new stars — a mystery scientists hope Webb can help solve.
“Humans have been studying the stars for thousands of years, and there is still a lot to understand,” said Nazar Budaiev, a graduate student at the University of Florida and co-principal investigator of the study. “For everything new Webb is showing us, there are also new mysteries to explore, and it’s exciting to be a part of that ongoing discovery”
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