Webb telescope captures never-before-seen glimpse of the heart of the Milky Way

The James Webb Space Telescope has peered into the core of the Milky Way galaxy and revealed a multitude of new features and mysteries within this chaotic region. These findings have the potential to provide astronomers with more insights into the early universe.

By utilizing its ability to observe the universe in infrared light, which is invisible to the human eye, the space observatory has captured unprecedented details in an image recently released by NASA.

Astronomers have employed Webb to study Sagittarius C (Sgr C), an active region of star formation situated approximately 300 light-years away from Sagittarius A*, the galaxy's central supermassive black hole. To put this into perspective, a light-year corresponds to the distance traveled by light in one year, which is about 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).

Samuel Crowe, the principal investigator of these observations and an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, expressed enthusiasm about the image from Webb, emphasizing the scientific breakthroughs that it could offer. Crowe stated, "Massive stars are crucial in the production of heavy elements within their nuclear cores, so gaining a deeper understanding of them is akin to uncovering the origin story of a significant portion of the universe."

Examining the heart of the Milky Way with Webb holds promise for shedding light on the formation of stars, such as determining the frequency of star formation in this region and whether massive stars tend to form near the galactic center or in the spiral arms of the galaxy.

Crowe emphasized the uniqueness of the infrared data obtained by Webb, noting its exceptional resolution and sensitivity. As a result, numerous features within this region have been unveiled for the first time, providing an unprecedented opportunity to study star formation in such an environment.

Within the image, a stunning array of approximately 500,000 stars can be observed, exhibiting a wide range of sizes and ages. Notably, a cluster of protostars, known as dense accumulations of dust and gas, is prominent. These protostars are still in the process of developing and growing into fully fledged stars. At the center of the cluster, there is an enormous protostar with a mass of over 30 times that of the sun.

The protostars emit radiant materials, generating illuminated spheres of light that emanate from their formation. Surprisingly, these formations appear dark when observed in infrared light.

In a composite view of galaxy cluster MACS0416, obtained by combining infrared observations from Webb with visible-light data from Hubble Space Telescope, a breathtaking panorama of galaxies emerges. The image showcases a remarkable variety of colors, achieved by assigning blue to the shortest wavelengths of light, red to the longest wavelengths, and green to intermediate wavelengths. This comprehensive wavelength coverage, spanning from 0.4 to 5 microns, reveals a vibrant cosmic landscape, perhaps one of the most vivid views of the universe.

Jonathan Tan, a research professor of astronomy and one of Crowe's advisors at the University of Virginia, highlighted the galactic center as an environment that challenges the current theories of star formation. Exploring this extreme region allows scientists to subject these theories to rigorous examination.

Moreover, the observatory's Near-Infrared Camera has detected ionized hydrogen emissions encompassing the lower edge of the stellar region, depicted in cyan within the image.

Astronomers remain intrigued by the origin of the extensive amount of energized gas observed, which surpasses what is typically released by young massive stars. Furthermore, the structures resembling needles within the ionized hydrogen, arranged in a seemingly random fashion, have piqued the interest of the observation team.

Rubén Fedriani, a coinvestigator of the project and a postdoctoral research fellow at the Instituto Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain, explained the complex nature of the galactic center, describing it as a crowded and turbulent place. Massive stars under formation impact the surrounding gas through their outflowing winds, jets, and radiation. Webb's comprehensive data on this extreme environment holds tremendous potential for further analysis, with scientists only beginning to scratch the surface of its findings.