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NASA's Webb Peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy

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September 12, 2024 10:00AM (EDT)Release ID: 2024-131
At center is a compact star cluster composed of luminous red, blue, and white points of light. Faint jets with clumpy, diffuse material extend in various directions from the bright cluster. Translucent red wisps of material stretch across the scene. Background galaxies are scattered across this swath of space, appearing as small blue-white and orange-white dots or fuzzy, thin disks.

Summary

Among the Milky Way’s outskirts is a firecracker show of star formation.

How do environmental factors affect the star formation process?

To help answer this question, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope examined the fringes of our Milky Way galaxy. Webb’s near- and mid-infrared imaging capabilities enabled scientists to examine a star-forming area reminiscent of our galaxy during its early formation.

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Full Article

Astronomers have directed NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine the outskirts of our Milky Way galaxy. Scientists call this region the Extreme Outer Galaxy due to its location more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center. (For comparison, Earth is approximately 26,000 light-years from the center.) A team of scientists used Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) to image select regions within two molecular clouds known as Digel Clouds 1 and 2. With its high degree of sensitivity and sharp resolution, the Webb data resolved these ...

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Visit NASA Science to view the full news release including article text and associated Webb imagery, graphics, scientific visualizations, videos, captions, text descriptions, and other information.

News releases highlighting the discoveries of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope are produced for NASA by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, under NASA Contract NAS5-03127. News release content is developed by the News Team in STScI’s Office of Public Outreach.

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