the James Webb Space Telescope nobody investigated The most dynamic star forming region nearby galaxies, the so-called NGC 346, Close Milky Waywhich they found important amounts of dustsomething astronomers did not expect, the website of Container.
NCG 346 is located at Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC),dwarf galaxyClose to the Milky Way that contains lower concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium. minerals.
Since dust grains in space are mostly made up of “minerals,” according to scientists Expect to find only small amounts of dust and that it would be hard to detect; But “new data” from the Webb telescope “reveal just the opposite.”
Astronomers discovered this region because “the conditions and amount of metallurgy within the SMC are similar to those observed in galaxies billions of years ago,” during An era in the history of the universe known as the “cosmic noon”when star formation was at its peak.
About 2,000 or 3,000 million years later the great explosionHe explains that the galaxies were forming stars at an amazing rate and the “star formation fireworks that were happening at that time They are still forming galaxies that we see around us today.
“Even if NGC 346 It is now the only massive star cluster in its galaxy. It presents us with a wonderful opportunity to investigate the circumstances “It was there at cosmic noon,” said Margaret Mixner, astronomer and principal investigator on the team of scientists.
Observing these “protostars” in the process of formation allows researchers To see if the star formation process in the SMC is different which we observe in our galaxy the Milky Way.
when stars form,Collect gas and dust that can look like streaks In Webb’ images, of the surrounding molecular cloud.
Astronomy scientists They discovered gas around protostars within NGC 346, but Webb’s near-infrared observations indicate For the first time they also discovered dust on these discs.
With Webb, we can Investigation of a lightweight protostaras small as a tenth of our sun” and find out if The forming process’ is affected by the low metal contentsaid Olivia Jones of the UK Astronomy Technology Centre.
For Guido De Marchi, from European Space Agency (ESA)We look at the building blocks of not only the stars, but also Planetary probability“.
webb is a file The largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into spaceUnder an international cooperation agreement between the European Space Agency, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
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