Webb spots high concentration of massive, hot stars nearby

Peeking into stellar nurseries: Webb Telescope unveils secrets of massive young stars.

This image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows NGC 604, a star-forming region in the nearby Triangulum Galaxy. The red tendrils and bubbles are sculpted by stellar winds from massive young stars, offering astronomers a unique chance to study their formation. [Credit: NASA/ESA/CSA/ STScI]

Being “close” has a very different definition in cosmology. NGC 604, the star-forming region pictured here, is close to the Earth. But it is not close like Delhi and Gurugram are close to each other. It is actually 2.73 million light-years away from us but that is nothing more than an inch in a universe that is 94 billion light-years wide.

NGC 604 is located in the nearby Triangulum galaxy and it is similar to other star-forming regions in the galaxy like the Orion Nebula. But this particular region is much bigger and also contains a lot more recently-formed stars than Orion. According to NASA, such regions are smaller versions of more distant “starburst” galaxies which went through an extremely high rate of star formation.

Star formation and the chaotic environments where it happens is one of the most important areas of cosmology. The latest images of NGC 604 from Webb shows envelopes of gas that shelter 200 of the hottest most massive kinds of stars that are all in early stages of their lives.

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These are B-type and O-type stars. The latter can be more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun and it is actually quite rare to find such a high concentration of them so close in our galactic vicinity. This high concentration, couple with how close the region is means that astronoemrs are given an unprecedented opportunity to study these cosmic giants at a really early time of their lives.

The most noticeable features of the image are tendrils and clumps of emissions that are depicted in bright red and extend out from areas that look like clearings or large bubbles in the nebula. These “holes” are carved out by stellar winds from the brightest and hottest young stars as ultraviolet radiation is ionising the gas around them.

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