The center of our galaxy is very chaotic

Testing theories of star formation

This new data is particularly valuable to researchers because it can help test current theories about star formation. The James Webb Telescope has now set its sights on the center of the Milky Way and, with its latest images, it is illuminating the densest part of our immediate surroundings in exquisite detail never before possible.

Specifically, they come from NASA released the images From a star forming region called Sagittarius C.
The star formation region in Sagittarius C

It is about 25,000 light-years from Earth

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 Earth. In total, the region is home to more than 500,000 stars and various populations of protostars, that is, stars that are still forming and gaining mass.

This creates a stunning cloud of chaos in the new images. This is because there are a lot of stars, compared to the region of space in which we live, which is very sparse.

In fact, the galactic center is an “extreme environment” in the Milky Way, explained Jonathan Tan, a professor at the University of Virginia, who assisted the observing team. And in the middle of it all is a massive protostar weighing more than 30 times the weight of our sun. There was no data on this area at this level of precision and sensitivity.

This is only made possible by the performance of the James Webb Telescope. The data provided by these images will allow researchers to put current theories about star formation through their paces. To this end, the telescope’s NIRCam (near infrared camera) instrument captured emission images of a large area of ​​ionized hydrogen (blue portion at bottom of image, highlighted in yellow):

Further investigations will follow

This is likely the result of young, massive stars emitting high-energy photons. The sheer size of this area has surprised researchers and now requires further investigation.
Infographic Hubble’s successor: The James Webb Space Telescope in detail

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