The European Space Agency (ESA) has released images of the Westerlund 1 star cluster, which contains large and small stars packed closely together. From the James Webb Space Telescope
The cluster, located about 12,000 light years from Earth, was first discovered by Swedish astronomer Bengt Westerlund in 1961 and has become a target of interest for astronomers around the world. To study the evolution and life cycle of massive stars, how they are born, live and die.
Westerlund 1 is a cluster of hundreds of massive stars. Located just 3 light years in radius (the nearest star to the Sun is 4 light years away), one of the cluster’s stars is Westerlund 1 W26, a red super star that is 200,000 times brighter than the A sun that is so large that if it is placed in the solar system it will cover the area that reaches the orbit of Jupiter.
If the Westerlund 1 star cluster were distributed around the world (and without taking into account the survival properties of the world or the perturbations of the solar system), we would see hundreds of bright stars filling the sky With brightness equal to the full moon and it can be seen in the daytime sky as well.
This star cluster is only about 3.5-5 million years old. This makes it a young star cluster in the most remote environment of the Milky Way Galaxy. From the tight pack of many large stars together with the continuous birth of large stars So much so that astronomers refer to clusters like Westerlund 1 ‘superclusters’, of which there are only a handful today. But it is estimated that around 10,000 million years ago. The Milky Way galaxy is full of these superclusters that give birth to the small and large stars of the universe.
For these reasons, Westerlund 1 is a target of astronomers’ attention. To study the real environment of the stars as well as to understand the evolution of massive stars. to the state of the Milky Way galaxy in the past. and revealing the hidden stars behind interstellar dust and gas. which hides the search through the wavelengths that the eye can see
picture: ESA/NASA/CSA/EWOCS Team
reference:
