Star formation in the the Milky Way: Impressive image provides the answer
In the center of the Milky Way, the conditions are actually ideal for the formation of stars. Now there is a clue as to why so few are formed there.
Large the radio astronomical image, the detail shows the image from the James Webb space telescope
(Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, SARAO, Samuel Crowe (UVA), John Bally (CU), Ruben Fedriani (IAA-CSIC), Ian Heywood (Oxford))
Immense magnetic fields in the center of the Milky Way apparently ensure that, despite ideal initial conditions, fewer stars are formed than would be expected. This is suggested by findings now published from observations by the James Webb Space Telescope. This includes an impressive image of the region, for which data from the space telescope and a radio telescope on Earth were combined. The focus is not on the center of our home galaxy, the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, but on a gigantic molecular cloud in its vicinity and a region called Sagittarius C.
Looking through the veil
As the US space agency NASA explains, the study is about the so-called Central Molecular Cloud (CMZ) in the center of the Milky Way. In view of the large quantities of gas and dust present there, it is to be expected that many stars will form. Until now, it has not been possible to explain why this does not happen. It has now been observed for the first time that strong magnetic fields play an important role in suppressing star formation, explains astrophysicist John Bally. This was possible because the James Webb space telescope can see through the dense dust clouds in the near-infrared spectrum.
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NASA presented the results together with an image that is not only based on data from the space telescope. It shows what the region around the supermassive black hole in the Milky Way looks like to the South African radio telescope network MeerKAT. The clouds of interstellar dust and elongated strips of gas formed by the magnetic fields can be seen. A section shows how the JWST can see through this dust and detect individual stars. The work is presented in two articles in The Astrophysical Journal.
(mho)
