NASA's Webb Explores Largest Star-Forming Cloud in Milky Way

Summary
The galactic center is packed with star-making material — why isn’t it producing more stars? Webb could reveal long-sought answers.
Sagittarius B2 is the Milky Way galaxy’s most massive and active star forming cloud, producing half of the stars created in the galactic center region despite having only 10 percent of the area’s star-making material. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals stunning new views of the region, using both its near-infrared and mid-infrared instruments, to capture both its colorful stars and gaseous stellar nurseries in unprecedented detail. Astronomers think that analysis of Webb’s data will help unravel enduring mysteries of the star formation process, and why Sagittarius B2 is forming so many more stars than the rest of the galactic center.
Full Article
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed a colorful array of massive stars and glowing cosmic dust in the Sagittarius B2 molecular cloud, the most massive and active star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy. “Webb’s powerful infrared instruments provide detail we’ve never been able to see before, which will help us to understand some of the still-elusive mysteries of massive star formation and why Sagittarius B2 is so much more active than the rest of the galactic center,” said astronomer Adam Ginsburg of the University of Florida, principal investigator ...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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