Using the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have captured a spectacular image of N79, a region of interstellar ionized hydrogen in the Large Magellanic Cloud.
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This Hubble image shows N79, a star-forming region located 163,000 light-years away in the constellation of Dorado. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / M. Meixner.
N79 is a massive star-forming complex spanning roughly 1,630 light-years in the generally unexplored southwest region of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring dwarf galaxy about 163,000 light-years away from us.
This region is typically regarded as a younger version of 30 Doradus, which is also known as the Tarantula Nebula.
N79 has a star formation efficiency exceeding that of 30 Doradus by a factor of two over the past 500,000 years.
This particular image centers on one of the three giant molecular cloud complexes, dubbed N79 South (S1 for short).
The distinct ‘starburst’ pattern surrounding this bright object is a series of diffraction spikes.
“All telescopes which use a mirror to collect light, as Webb does, have this form of artifact which arises from the design of the telescope,” the Webb astronomers said.
“In Webb’s case, the six largest starburst spikes appear because of the hexagonal symmetry of Webb’s 18 primary mirror segments.”
“Patterns like these are only noticeable around very bright, compact objects, where all the light comes from the same place.”
“Most galaxies, even though they appear very small to our eyes, are darker and more spread out than a single star, and therefore do not show this pattern.”
“At the longer wavelengths of light captured by MIRI, Webb’s view of N79 showcases the region’s glowing gas and dust.”
“This is because mid-infrared light is able to reveal what is happening deeper inside the clouds (while shorter wavelengths of light would be absorbed or scattered by dust grains in the nebula). Some still-embedded protostars also appear in this field.”
Star-forming regions such as N79 are of interest to astronomers because their chemical composition is similar to that of the gigantic star-forming regions observed when the early Universe.
“Star-forming regions in our Milky Way Galaxy are not producing stars at the same furious rate as N79, and have a different chemical composition,” the astronomers said.
“Webb is now providing us the opportunity to compare and contrast observations of star formation in N79 with the telescope’s deep observations of distant galaxies in the early Universe.”
“These observations of N79 are part of a Webb program that is studying the evolution of the circumstellar disks and envelopes of forming stars over a wide range in mass and at different evolutionary stages.”
“Webb’s sensitivity will enable us to detect for the first time the planet-forming dust disks around stars of similar mass to that of our Sun at the distance of the Large Magellanic Cloud.”
