Webb Telescope Explores the Mysterious Depths of the Extreme Outer Galaxy

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By Rick Adams

13, Sep 2024

NASA’s James Webb Telescope successfully detects the regions right at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. Called the Extreme Outer Galaxy, it is 58,000 light years away from the galactic center.

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To observe the four sources, a team of scientists pointed Webb’s NIRCam and MIRI at two clouds identified as Digel Clouds 1 and 2: cores 1A, 1B, 2N, and 2S. These Webb observations allow scientists to investigate star births in the outskirts of the Milky Way with the same depth as in our cosmic neighborhood

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Due to the high sensitivity and great resolution offered by Webb, it was able to take pictures of these areas that are home to star clusters that are currently experiencing star formation. 

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 Such information that could be obtained from these data includes some components of the clusters, like very young protostars, outflows and jets, and some peculiar nebular structures.

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In the case of Cloud 2S, demonstrated in this case, Webb was able to present a bright main cluster consisting of newborn stars.

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This is a rather compact region that is actually very bright and several stars are launching a stream of material along their polar axis. 

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Also, for the first time ever, Webb’s imaging unveiled that there might be a sub-cluster in the cloud that scientists had previously hypothesized about. 

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Webb has data that shows that there are fires or what we see as jets, pointing in all directions from this cluster of stars.  

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