James Webb portrays Mega Star Factory

This is another great image from the new James Webb Superspace Telescope. The image shows NGC 346, a region about 200,000 light-years from Earth where many stars are forming.

room James Webb It captures the knots, arcs, and filaments of gas and dust that fuel this stellar nursery.

the NGC 346 It is embedded in a satellite galaxy of our own, the Milky Way, called the Small Magellanic Cloud – and is used as a laboratory for studying star formation processes.

The agglomerate contains relatively low concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.

In this way, conditions replicate, in a sense, those that existed much earlier in the history of the universe, when the birth of stars was at its peak – a period known as “Cosmic Dawn”, About three billion years after the Big Bang.

Previous space telescopes were able to detect the larger objects in this scene, but Webb’s, with its superior sensitivity and resolution, allows astronomers to pinpoint the smaller sources.

“for the first time, We can see the entire sequence of star formation in another galaxy.”says Olivia Jones of the UK Astronomy Technology Center (UK ATC) in Edinburgh, Scotland.

“Previously, with Spitzer, which was one of NASA’s greatest observatories, we were able to detect the most massive protostars, which are about five to eight times the mass of our Sun.”

“But with Webb, we have the sensitivity limit to go down to 1/10th the mass of the Sun. Then, We have a sensitivity to detect very low mass stars In the training process, but meticulously to see how it affects the environment. And as you can see from the image, it’s a very dynamic environment.”

There is gas being activated in this image at temperatures up to 10,000 degrees Celsius. On the other hand, Webb also detects cold gas at -200°C.

Astronomers refer to “metals” when discussing all elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. It is the material needed to make planets.

Therefore, one of the big questions revolved around whether low mineral environments like NGC 346 have enough dusty material to collect and build rocky worlds.

Webb’s notes on the conglomerate indicate that they certainly have that potential. Even the smallest protostars detected in the image have disks of dust around them.

Incidentally, this proposed planetary formation was also possible at the beginning of the universe, in the cosmic twilight, as Margaret Mixner, an astronomer at the University Space Research Association in Maryland, USA, explains.

“The metallicity of the Small Magellanic Clouds can be compared to the peak age of star formation in the universe. That’s when we’re basically producing the most stars in the universe. And that’s very interesting because it means it could be Possibly planet formation around a large number of stars, ”says the researcher.

The new image of NGC 346 taken by Webb has been released at the 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society, in Seattle, USA.

He also announced that the telescope had discovered the first exoplanet – the name given to planets orbiting other stars.

Officially called LHS 475 b, the planet is almost the same size as our own. Measure 99% of the Earth’s diameter.

Its existence had been suggested by data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, but Webb was able to quickly dispel suspicion. He observed the light coming from the parent star and was able to detect the drop in emissions as the planet passed in front of it, which is something that happens every day.

This very short orbital period means that LHS 475 b is very close to its star and, as a result, is a few hundred degrees hotter than Earth.

Astronomers are trying to determine the possible composition of the atmosphere. However, it is possible that the planet may not have one.

“This planet It may also be a body without air “It’s lost whatever atmosphere it had before,” says Jacob Lustig-Yeager, of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, also in Maryland.

But Webb’s data may also be consistent with a thick atmosphere of carbon dioxide with clouds at high altitudes — unlike Venus.