Space photo of the week: James Webb telescope spots the ultimate

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JWST’s view of Westerlund 1, among the closest “super star” clusters to the planetary system.
(Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M.Zamani(ESA/Webb), M. G. Guarcello(INAF-OAPA)and the EWOCS group)

What it is: very star cluster Westerlund 1

Where it is: 12,000 light-years away in the constellation Ara.

When it was shared: Oct. 3, 2024

Why it’s so unique:

Westerlund 1 is a stellar factory of legendary percentages. Noticeable from Earth’s Southern Hemisphere simply listed below the tail of the Scorpion– and near to the core of the Milky Way– it’s the biggest recognized star cluster in our galaxy.

It’s the supreme example of a “super star cluster.” While a lot of such clusters have to do with 10,000 times the sun’s mass, Westerlund 1 is 50,000 to 100,000 times the solar mass. A few of its numerous extremely enormous stars are 2,000 times bigger than our sun. If they remained in the planetary system, they would reach as far as the orbit of Saturn and shine 1 million times brighter than the sun. If Earth orbited a star within Westerlund 1, our night sky would have lots of numerous stars as intense as the moon.

Astronomers believe that within the next 40 million years– the blink of an eye in cosmic terms– more than 1,500 supernovae (stars taking off at the end of their lives) will illuminate Westerlund 1. Now, the cluster is about 3.5 million to 5 million years old.

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This image was revealed as the current James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Photo of the Month and released as both a wide-field view and a panning videoIt is something just the JWST might produce since Westerlund 1 is concealed from optical telescopes like Hubble, which can’t translucent interstellar clouds of gas and dust. JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), nevertheless, can peer through dust and gas due to the fact that it sees light beyond the red end of the noticeable spectrum in infrared wavelengths, which is not spread by this cosmic particles.

Twists of red gas within the star cluster show up on top and center of the image. The brilliant stars in JWST’s image all have 6 big and 2 little snowflake-like diffraction spikes due to the fact that of the method light journeys as a wave from the 18 hexagonal mirrors in the telescope’s main mirror. The 2 horizontal lines through each star arise from the light being shown from the main mirror to a secondary mirror, which 2 struts keep in location.

Westerland 1 looks like the Milky Way’s past when it produced a lot more stars. Simply a couple of such clusters endure and use hints for astronomers attempting to find out what took place in the Milky Way’s remote history– and how the most enormous stars in our galaxy live and pass away.

Jamie Carter is a self-employed reporter and routine Live Science factor based in Cardiff, U.K. He is the author of A Stargazing Program For Beginners and lectures on astronomy and the natural world. Jamie frequently composes for Space.com, TechRadar.com, Forbes Science, BBC Wildlife publication and Scientific American, and numerous others. He modifies WhenIsTheNextEclipse.com.