James Webb telescope looks into the heart of the Milky Way

Once again the James Webb Space Telescope amazes us. His image, published on November 20, of a 50 light-year-wide section at the heart of our Milky Way shows some 500,000 stars in incomparable detail – and a phenomenon that astronomers cannot yet explain.

The cosmic snapshot shows the Sagittarius C region, which is about 25,000 light-years from Earth and 300 light-years from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way with a mass of 4.3 million solar masses. To date, no infrared data on this region is available with the resolution and sensitivity now achieved by the Webb telescope.

At the bottom left of the image is a bright turquoise-blue cloud about 25 light-years across. It is hydrogen ionized by young, massive stars in the area. Inside are needle-shaped structures that do not have a uniform orientation and point chaotically in all directions. This phenomenon requires further research; Such structures have never before been observed in such detail and pose a puzzle for astronomers.

In the image, the region of ionized hydrogen is clearly contrasted by an infrared dark cloud so dense that it blocks light from distant stars behind it. This makes it appear as if there are fewer stars than there actually are. In fact, it is one of the busiest areas in the photo. This dark area is wider at the top of the image and tapers toward the bottom, where it is framed by the glowing turquoise ionized hydrogen.

A bright spot can be seen in the center of the apparently dark area. It is a cluster of protostars: very young stars that are still forming and increasing in mass.

They glow like a campfire in the middle of a dark cloud, indicating that they are emerging from the cloud’s protective cocoon and will soon become like the more mature stars around them. At the center of this young cluster is a massive protostar that has been known for a long time. It has 30 times the mass of the sun.

The extraordinary image provides astronomers with new information about the process of star formation and how this process may depend on the cosmic environment, especially compared to other regions in the Milky Way. Just think of the more massive stars that form in the center of the Milky Way, as opposed to the stars at the edges of the spiral arms. (mr)