Through the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) created by NASA, astrophysicists have been examining the processes of stellar formation in the most distant outskirts of our more familiar the Milky Way galaxy which allowed them to view the young star clusters in surroundings which was quite different from that of the present day environment.
The two star forming regions studied in this paper through the form of W40 and 30Doradus were located in the extreme outer galaxy(EOG) along with a specific interest being placed on the ability of this region to form stars. This distant region contrasts areas within the galaxy many of which are populous around heavy elements and gas.
“Examining the process of star formation in the EOG helps us understand how we such stars were formed in the universe, especially in galaxies that had yet to build up concentrations of heavy elements that we might understand today,” Izumi added. In this case, it is almost as if hovering over a galactic incubator which is concerned with the very first steps of galaxy building evolution.
Employing the high-quality infrared screen provided by JWST, the researchers managed to identify stars more than 10 times fainter than previous observations allowed. This enabled them to pinpoint stars with a mass as low as 1% of that of our Sun and even go lower where the most normal stars in a star forming process occur.
The pictures illustrate detailed structures inside the stellar nurseries which have never been observed this distance from the source ones. It includes:
- the jets and other mass outflows from very young stars which are still in the process of formation
- The Individual stellar systems fragmented away from the main clusters.
- Stellar wind and radiation sculpted nebulae
- Candidate “Class 0” protostars- these are the youngest stellar objects that exist
Michael Ressler, co-author of the work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said, “We are looking for the first time at the detailed surroundings of star formation in the outer parts of our galactic disc.” “This is the first time we are afforded a viewpoint on star formation that is so far removed from our neighborhood that it is impossible to be further dreamed of.”
The authors argue that these observations will be useful for better understanding the processes of star formation that can take place in low metallicity environments which bear resemblance to the early universe. They intend further work to understand how the star formation process and the emergent star population would be related to the evolution of the EOG as compared to other general areas of star formation that are within close proximity.
This work shows how the JWST can look deep within the dusty stellar nurseries of the galaxy to discover the extremes of stellar birth processes. As in the case of this mission, they will look forward to discovering more of how stars and planets are formed in the universe through time and space.
The article appears in data of a journal called Astronomical Journal.