April 27, 2024

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Webb Telescope images show an unprecedented and “messy” view of the center of our galaxy

Webb Telescope images show an unprecedented and “messy” view of the center of our galaxy

The James Webb Telescope is . This time the telescope Highlighting the densest part of our surroundings in “unprecedented detail.” Specifically, the images are obtained from a star-forming region called Sagittarius C, or Sgr C for short.

This region is located about 300 light-years from the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A, and more than 25,000 light-years from a small blue rock called Earth. Finally, the region contains more than 500,000 stars and various groups of protostars, which are stars that are still forming and gaining mass. The final result? An amazing cloud of chaos, especially when compared to our region of space, which is very sparse in comparison.

In fact, the galactic center is the “most extreme environment” in the Milky Way, said Jonathan Tan, a professor at the University of Virginia, who assisted the observation team. There has been no data on this region with this “level of accuracy and sensitivity” until now, thanks to the power of the Webb Telescope.

At the center of everything is a massive protostar that weighs more than 30 times the weight of our Sun. This actually makes the area appear less populated than it actually is, as this solar object blocks the light behind it, so not even Webb can see all the stars in the area. So what you’re looking at is a conservative estimate of how crowded the area is. It’s like Times Square in space, Restaurant (currently)

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, and S. Crowe (University of Virginia).

The data provided by these images will allow researchers to put current theories about star formation to “the most stringent test.” To that end, Webb’s NIRCam (near infrared camera) instrument captured wide-field emission images of ionized hydrogen, colored blue on the underside of the image. This is likely the result of young, massive stars emitting energetic photons, but the sheer size of the region came as a surprise to researchers, warranting further study.

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The research enabled by these and upcoming images will allow scientists to understand the nature of massive stars, which is akin to “knowing the origin story of much of the universe,” said lead researcher on the observing team, Samuel Crowe.

Obviously, this is not the first interesting image produced by the James Webb Telescope. We are located in the constellation Virgo, in the main asteroid belt, among others. He’s seen things Fortunately, all of these things won’t disappear like tears in the rain because of the Internet and because the Web still exists.