Webb Sees a Star-Forming Region Blowing Vast Bubbles

JWST's near-infrared view of the star-forming region NGC 604 in the Triangulum galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI
JWST's near-infrared view of the star-forming region NGC 604 in the Triangulum galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Star birth is a messy and chaotic event. Some of the process remains well hidden behind clouds of gas and dust that make up star-forming regions. However, part of it happens in wavelengths of light we can detect, such as visible light and infrared. It’s an intricate process that the Webb telescope (JWST) can study in detail.

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This Galaxy Was Already Dead When the Universe Was Only 700 Million Years Old

False-color JWST image of a small fraction of the GOODS South field, with the galaxy JADES-GS-z7-01-QU highlighted Credit: JADES Collaboration
False-color JWST image of a small fraction of the GOODS South field, with the galaxy JADES-GS-z7-01-QU highlighted Credit: JADES Collaboration

When a galaxy runs out of gas and dust, the process of star birth stops. That takes billions of years. But, there’s a galaxy out there that was already dead when the Universe was only 700 million years old. What happened to it?

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Even Stars Like the Sun Can Unleash Savage Flares in Their Youth

Artist's concept of the flare that burst out from the young nearby star HD 283572. The flare was detected by the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, in Hawai'i. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss.
Artist's concept of the flare that burst out from the young nearby star HD 283572. The flare was detected by the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, in Hawai'i. Credit: CfA/Melissa Weiss.

Why would a young Sun-like star suddenly belch out a hugely bright flare? That’s what astronomers at Harvard Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory want to know after they spotted such an outburst using a sensitive submillimeter-wave telescope. According to Joshua Bennett Lovell, leader of a team that observed the star’s activity, these kinds of flare events are rare in such young stars, particularly at millimeter wavelengths. So, what’s happening there?

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The JWST Discovers a Galaxy That Shouldn’t Exist

The JWST captured this image of an unusual quiescent dwarf galaxy in the background of separate observations. Image Credit: Carleton et al. 2024

Astronomers working with the JWST found a dwarf galaxy they weren’t looking for. It’s about 98 million years away, has no neighbours, and was in the background of an image of other galaxies. This isolated galaxy shows a lack of star-formation activity, which is very unusual for an isolated dwarf.

Most isolated dwarf galaxies form stars, according to a wealth of observations. What’s different about this one?

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Astronomers See Massive Stars Forming Together in Multiple Star Systems

This false-color image of the massive star formation region G333.23–0.06 came from data obtained with the ALMA radio observatory. The insets show regions where researchers detected multiple systems of protostars. The star symbols indicate the location of each newly forming star. Image Credit: S. Li, MPIA / J. Neidel, MPIA Graphics Department / Data: ALMA Observatory

All stars form in giant molecular clouds of hydrogen. But some stars are extraordinarily massive; the most massive one we know of is about 200 times more massive than the Sun. How do these stars gain so much mass?

Part of the answer is that they form in multiple star systems.

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The Oldest Known Spiral Galaxy Has Ripples Like the Surface of a Pond

This simulation illustrates a galaxy disk being disturbed, leading to the propagation of a seismic ripple throughout the disk. (Credit: Bland-Hawthorn and Tepper-Garcia, University of Sydney).

Astronomers have detected pond-like ripples across the gaseous disk of an ancient galaxy. What caused the ripples, and what do they tell us about the distant galaxy’s formation and evolution? And whatever happened, how has it affected the galaxy and its main job: forming stars?

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JWST Sets a New Record, Sees Newly Forming Stars in the Triangulum Galaxy

Galaxy M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) as seen by Hubble Space Telescope. JWST was used recently to observe sites in its southern arm where newly forming stars (YSOs) appear to lie.
Galaxy M33 (Triangulum Galaxy) as seen by Hubble Space Telescope. JWST was used recently to observe sites in its southern arm where newly forming stars (YSOs) appear to lie.

Our Milky Way bristles with giant molecular clouds birthing stars. Based on what we see here, astronomers assume that the process of star creation also goes on similarly in other galaxies. It makes sense since their stars have to form somehow. Now, thanks to JWST, astronomers have spotted baby stellar objects in a galaxy 2.7 million light-years away. That’s millions of light-years more distant than any previous observations of newly forming stars have reached.

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Three Baby Stars Found at the Heart of the Milky Way

The image, taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows a high-resolution view of the innermost parts of the Milky Way. In the new study, the researchers examined the dense nuclear star cluster shown in detail here. Credit: ESO.
The image, taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile, shows a high-resolution view of the innermost parts of the Milky Way. In the new study, the researchers examined the dense nuclear star cluster shown in detail here. Credit: ESO. Milky Way in the background. Image credit: NASA

The core of our Milky Way is buzzing with stars. Recently astronomers reported that it contains at least one ancient star that formed outside our galaxy. Now, an international research team reports finding a grouping of very young ones there, as well. Their presence upends ideas about star birth in that densely packed region of space.

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This Dark Nebula Hides an Enormous Star

Stars forming in this dark nebula, named G35.2-0.7N, are particularly massive and many of them will explode as supernovae. Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Fedriani, J. Tan

The birth of a star is a spectacular event that plays out behind a veil of gas and dust. It’s a detailed process that takes millions of years to play out. Once a star leaves its protostar stage behind and begins its life of fusion, the star’s powerful radiative output blows the veil away.

But before then, astrophysicists are at a disadvantage.

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Protostars Can Siphon Material from Far Away

The B5 complex (red and green; radio images taken with the VLA and GBT) seen within its neighborhood, embedded in dust (blue) as seen with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, in infrared light. Scientists studied the protostar being fed by two streamers. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ESA
The Barnard 5 complex (red and green; radio images taken with the VLA and GBT) seen within its neighborhood, embedded in dust (blue) as seen with ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory, in infrared light. Scientists studied the protostar being fed by two streamers. Credit: B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF); ESA

When stars are born, they do it inside a molecular cloud. Astronomers long assumed that the “crèche” supplied all the nutrients that protostars needed to form. However, it turns out they get help from outside the nest.

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