the space telescope James Webb examines one of the most dynamic star-forming regions of nearby galaxies, called NGC 346, close to our Milky Way, in which they have detected significant amounts of dust, something astronomers did not expect, their page on Wednesday Web reported.
NCG 346 is in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a “dwarf galaxy” close to the Milky Way that contains lower concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, called metals.
Dust particles in space are mostly “metals”, scientists expected to find only small amounts of dust and it would be difficult to detect; but “new data” from the Webb telescope “shows otherwise.”
The astronomers explored this area because “the conditions and abundance of metals in the SMC resemble those observed in galaxies billions of years ago,” during an era in the history of the Universe known as “cosmic noon,” when star formation was at its peak. was the highlight. Highlight.
Some 2 to 3 billion years after the Big Bang, he explains, galaxies formed stars at a dizzying rate, and “the fireworks of star formation that took place then still shape the galaxies we see around us today.”
“Even if NGC 346 is now the only massive star-forming cluster in its galaxy, it offers us a great opportunity to investigate the conditions that existed on ‘cosmic noon,'” said Margaret Meixner, astronomer and principal investigator of the team of scientists. .
Observing these “protostars” during the formation process makes it easier for researchers to know if the star formation process in the SMC is different from what we see in our own galaxy.
As stars form, they “accumulate gas and dust that can appear as ribbons in Webb images” from the surrounding molecular cloud.
Astronomers have found gas around protostars in NGC 346, but Webb’s near-infrared observations mark the first time they’ve detected dust in these disks as well.
“With Webb we can examine lighter protostars as small as a tenth of our sun” and find out whether their formation process “is affected by the lower metal content,” said Olivia Jones of the UK Center for Astronomy Technology.
For Guido De Marchi, from the European Space Agency (ESA), “we are not only seeing the basic components of stars, but possibly planets as well.”
Webb is the largest and most powerful telescope ever launched into space, under an international cooperation agreement between ESA, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
