Africa-Press – Mozambique. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on Thursday unveiled vivid images of stars and cosmic dust within the Milky Way’s busiest stellar nursery.
According to NASA, the observatory focused on Sagittarius B2, a giant molecular cloud located just a few hundred light-years from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy’s center.
The area is tightly packed with stars, dense clouds of gas, and intricate magnetic fields.
Though Sagittarius B contains only about 10% of the gas near the galactic core, it is responsible for producing half of its stars.
Thanks to Webb’s ability to detect infrared light, scientists can peer through the thick clouds in this region to study how stars and other structures form there.
One of Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) images captures Sagittarius B2 North, described by NASA as one of the most molecule-rich regions known.
The MIRI view reveals the gas and dust there in “unprecedented detail,” with stars visible only as faint blue points shining through the dense clouds.
Using the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), astronomers observed colorful stars lighting up the surrounding gas and dust.
Researchers plan to continue analyzing these stars — measuring their size and age — to deepen understanding of how stars take shape in Sagittarius B2.
Despite the remarkable clarity of the new images, some mysteries remain. NASA explained that parts of Sagittarius B2 that appear dark and vacant are, in fact, packed so tightly with gas and dust that not even Webb can penetrate them.
These dense clouds will one day give rise to new stars and currently act as protective “cocoons” for young stars still in the early stages of development.
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