Webb detects a high concentration of nearby massive and hot stars | Technology news | Top Vip News

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Taking a look at stellar nurseries: Webb Telescope reveals secrets of massive young stars.

This image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows NGC 604, a star-forming region in the nearby Triangulum galaxy. The red tendrils and bubbles are sculpted by stellar winds from massive young stars, offering astronomers a unique opportunity to study their formation. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)This image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows NGC 604, a star-forming region in the nearby Triangulum galaxy. The red tendrils and bubbles are sculpted by stellar winds from massive young stars, offering astronomers a unique opportunity to study their formation. (Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI)

Being “close” has a very different definition in cosmology. NGC 604, the star-forming region shown here, is close to Earth. But it is not as close as Delhi and Gurugram are to each other. It’s actually 2.73 million light years away from us, but that’s just an inch in a universe that’s 94 billion light years across.

NGC 604 is located in the nearby Triangulum galaxy and is similar to other star-forming regions in the galaxy such as the Orion Nebula. But this particular region is much larger and also contains many more recently formed stars than Orion. According to NASA, these regions are smaller versions of more distant “starburst” galaxies that experienced an extremely high rate of star formation.

Star formation and the chaotic environments where it occurs is one of the most important areas of cosmology. The latest images of NGC 604 taken by Webb show gas envelopes hosting 200 of the most massive and hottest types of stars, all in the early stages of their lives.

These are type B and O stars. The latter can have more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun and it is actually quite rare to find such a high concentration of them so close to our galactic vicinity. This high concentration, coupled with how close the region is, means astronomers have an unprecedented opportunity to study these cosmic giants at a really early stage in their lives.

The most notable features of the image are tendrils and clusters of emissions that are depicted in bright red and extend from areas that look like clearings or large bubbles in the nebula. These “holes” are carved by stellar winds from the brightest, hottest young stars as ultraviolet radiation ionizes the gas around them.

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First uploaded on: 12/03/2024 at 19:03 IST


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