Astronomers Uncover Never-Before-Seen Features in New Image of Milky Way’s Center
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured a new photo of the deep center of the Milky Way, revealing never-before-seen features that have left scientists mystified. The image, which focuses on the region known as Sagittarius C (Sgr C), located about 300 light-years away from Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way’s center, has provided astronomers with an unprecedented level of detail and clarity.
According to astronomers, the new image has unveiled a crowded galactic center containing roughly 500,000 stars, including a cluster of protostars that are in the process of forming. In the heart of this cluster lies a massive protostar, 30 times the mass of our own Sun, which had previously been known to researchers. Additionally, JWST’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument captured large-scale emission from ionized hydrogen bordering the lower side of an infrared-dark cloud.
Astronomers are excited by the new findings, as the level of resolution and sensitivity provided by the JWST has allowed them to see features in the region for the very first time. They hope that this new image will lead to unprecedented information on how stars form.
“The image from Webb is stunning, and the science we will get from it is even better,” said Samuel Crowe, the principal investigator of the observation team. “There’s never been any infrared data on this region with the level of resolution and sensitivity we get with Webb, so we are seeing lots of features here for the first time.”
The new image from the JWST is expected to provide valuable insights to astronomers and may help in solving some of the long-standing mysteries of the Milky Way’s center.