Gobsmacking Image of a Stellar Nursery
Wow, check out this just-released image from the JWST team of star cluster NGC 602.
The local environment of this cluster is a close analogue of what existed in the early Universe, with very low abundances of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. The existence of dark clouds of dense dust and the fact that the cluster is rich in ionised gas also suggest the presence of ongoing star formation processes. This cluster provides a valuable opportunity to examine star formation scenarios under dramatically different conditions from those in the solar neighbourhood.
It is very worth your time to click through and look at this image in all of its massive celestial glory. I found this image via Phil Plait, who calls it “one of the most jaw-droppingly mind stomping images I’ve seen from JWST” and, directing us back to the science (remember the science?!), notes that NGC 602 is actively forming stars (it’s only about 5 million years old) and that it depicts “the first young brown dwarfs outside our Milky Way”. Cool!
Discussion 2 comments
I've lost the ability to understand what these images are any more. Are they real, like images from a light microscope? Or are they computer generated, like images from an electron microscope? They're so strange and beautiful I can't ever understand them.
I'm sure I'm not even asking the right question or using the correct terms. But… I don't know, somehow these are abstract enough that they may as well be AI-generated for me. They seem too unreal for my brain to accept.
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