The James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful and advanced in the world, captured a combined image of star explosions in the Large Magellanic Galaxy.
Amazing discovery
The new image shows the interstellar atomic hydrogen of the N79 nebula, which is 1,630 light-years across and located in a satellite galaxy. milky way.
This region is actively forming stars and remains almost unexplored by astronomers.
Studying condensed star birth regions like “N79” using the James Webb Space Telescope allows scientists to learn about the composition of star birth clouds composed of gas and dust.
The image focuses on three giant complexes of cold atomic gas called molecular clouds, which include what astronomers call “N79 South.”
One of the most striking aspects of the image is the “starburst” pattern surrounding the center of N79.
The James Webb Space Telescope captured the new image of N79 using the mid-infrared instrument MIRI.
Visible light is easily absorbed by these dense dust clouds, but long-wave infrared light passes more easily, so seeing infrared allows astronomers to delve deeper into this star-forming region.
As a result, the James Webb Space Telescope is also able to see young stellar objects.
These stars, called “protostars,” have not yet accumulated enough material from this shell to become massive enough to fuse hydrogen with helium in their cores, the process that defines what a star is.
The young star just starting this process can be seen as the brightest dot amid billowing orange clouds of gas and dust in the recently captured image.
It is hoped that, as part of this mission, the James Webb Space Telescope will help astronomers get their first look at planet-forming disks of material surrounding young, Sun-like stars, thus providing them with a picture of how our solar system formed about 4.6 billion years ago.
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