A team of NASA astronomers recently pointed the spacefaring telescope toward the outskirts of our own Milky Way galaxy to get a glimpse of some dense cosmic clouds home to star clusters undergoing star formation.
The region that attracted the researchers' attention is one referred to as "the extreme outer galaxy" – and that's not an exaggeration. While Earth is located about 26,000 light-years from what's known as the galactic center , the outer portions of the Milky Way are even further, at about 58,000 light-years from our galaxy's central region.
The stunning image that Webb produced shows newly-formed stars in the outer galaxy emitting jets of material in all directions, set against a backdrop of a sea of galaxies and red clouds of gas.
Shown in unprecedented resolution, Webb's imagery has enabled scientists to better study star formation in the outer Milky Way, astronomer Natsuko Izumi, who led a study with the latest findings, said in a statement .
"We can get very powerful and impressive images of these clouds with Webb," said Izumi, an astronomer at Gifu University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan. "I did not expect to see such active star formation and spectacular jets.”
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope imaged sections of the outskirts of the Milky Way galaxy, a region called the Extreme Outer Galaxy. As shown here, the telescope observed newly formed stars and their extended jets of material, a sea of background galaxies, and red clouds of gas within the region. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Ressler (JPL)
The resulting visual, compiled from those sections of the outer galaxy, depict young protostars , which are so early in their stellar evolution that they are still gathering mass from parent molecular clouds. Also visible in the image are outflows of superheated gas called "plasma," as well as nebular structures.
“What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars," said scientist Mike Ressler of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, who led observations. "It’s a little bit like a firecracker, where you see things shooting this way and that."
Researchers hope to study 'extreme outer galaxy' more
Star formation is a complex process that has long held a degree of mystery for astronomers.
While Webb's latest data provides more context to help astronomers piece together some answers, the imagery only "skims the surface," the researchers said. The researchers said they intend to further study the extreme outer galaxy for more clues to explain, for instance, why stars of various sizes are found in relative abundance in the region's star clusters.
“I’m interested in continuing to study how star formation is occurring in these regions," Izumi said. "By combining data from different observatories and telescopes, we can examine each stage in the evolution process."
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