A maelstrom of star formation close to the center of our galaxy has been revealed in two different wavelengths by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), its beautiful images highlighting the intensity of star-birth in the region and deepening the mystery of why star formation at the very heart of our galaxy is so sluggish.
Sagittarius B2 is a dense cloud of molecular gas located about 390 light-years from the black hole Sagittarius A* at the center of our Milky Way galaxy . At about 150 light-years across and containing enough gas to assemble 3 million sun -like stars , B2 is the largest, most massive and most active star-forming region in our entire galaxy .
Yet, B2 is at odds with the rest of the galactic center. As massive as B2 is, it contains only 10% of the molecular gas in the galactic center, gas that forms the building blocks of stars. Still, despite only having a modest fraction of gas relative to the galactic center as a whole, B2 produces half of all the stars there. It is an enduring mystery why B2 has such intense star formation while the rest of the galactic center has proportionately lower rates of star-birth.
Stars, gas and cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud glow in near-infrared light, captured by the JWST's NIRCam instrument. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Adam Ginsburg (University of Florida)/Nazar Budaiev (University of Florida)/Taehwa Yoo (University of Florida)/Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).)
That's why the new observations by the JWST are so important in understanding what drives and what puts the brakes on star formation in the galactic center.
"Webb's powerful infrared instruments provide detail we've never been able to see before, which will help us to understand some of the still-elusive mysteries of massive star formation and why Sagittarius B2 is so much more active than the rest of the galactic center," said study co-author Adam Ginsburg of the University of Florida in a statement .
One theory is that powerful, complex magnetic fields that are entwined around the galactic center and its retinue of molecular clouds similar to B2 could play a deciding factor, but the hows and whys there are still to be determined.
For its part, JWST can get to the heart of the star formation in B2 thanks to the space telescope's powerful infrared vision that can peer through much of the obscuring dust in the cloud. Presented here are two images, one taken at shorter infrared wavelengths by the JWST's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the other captured at longer wavelengths by the telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
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JWST's mid-infrared view of Sagittarius B2, showing more extensive, dusty nebulosity being illuminated by newly born stars. (Image credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI/Adam Ginsburg (University of Florida)/Nazar Budaiev (University of Florida)/Taehwa Yoo (University of Florida)/Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI).)
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