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Webb Maps Full Picture of How Phoenix Galaxy Cluster Forms Stars

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February 13, 2025 10:00AM (EST)Release ID: 2025-107
A galaxy cluster. The center of the cluster is bright white with short red jets that point toward the top right and bottom left, and several blue filaments that spread throughout the center. Outside the bright center is purple gas that is bright toward the center of the image and dimmer further from the center. There are contour lines overlayed in different colors.

Summary

Discovery proves decades-old theory of galaxy feeding cycle.

Since its discovery in 2010, the Phoenix cluster has always been one to stand out from the bunch.

It's one of the most massive galaxy clusters known to astronomers, and was the first galaxy cluster found to have a supermassive black hole that promotes, instead of hinders, a high rate of star formation.

Just how that was happening, though, remained a mystery. Researchers could see super-hot gas, and super-cold filaments of gas hiding forming stars. However, the in-between remained unseen. That is, until NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's infrared eye examined the cluster's core and found the missing cooling gas.

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Full Article

Researchers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have finally solved the mystery of how a massive galaxy cluster is forming stars at such a high rate. The confirmation from Webb builds on more than a decade of studies using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope, as well as several ground-based observatories.  The Phoenix cluster, a grouping of galaxies bound together by gravity 5.8 billion light-years from Earth, has been a target of interest for astronomers due to a few unique properties. In particular, ones that are surprising: a suspected extreme ...

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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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