Telescope captures Milky Way's center with over half a million stars

(Patria) - The James Webb Telescope has captured images of the Milky Way galaxy's center. More precisely, the latest images come from a star-forming region called Sagittarius C (Sgr C for short).

This region is about 300 light-years away from the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center - Sagittarius A, and more than 25,000 light-years from Earth.

The region boasts over 500,000 stars and various clusters of protostars - stars that are still forming and gaining mass.

The result is a stunningly chaotic cloud that is the complete opposite of our 'region' of the universe, which is comparatively very sparse.

The galactic center is the 'most extreme environment' in the Milky Way, according to Professor Jonathan Tan from the University of Virginia, who assisted the observation team.

There has never been data on this region with this "level of resolution and sensitivity" before.

At the center of it all is a massive protostar that is 30 times heavier than our sun.

Pictured: An estimated 500,000 stars.

This is the heart of the Milky Way galaxy. @NASAWebb has revealed never-before-seen features in a star-forming region called Sagittarius C: https://t.co/ljZyx7qV2y pic.twitter.com/WgBH45qUyQ

— NASA (@NASA) November 20, 2023

Because of this, the region actually appears less populated than it truly is, as this solar object blocks the light behind it, and even Webb cannot see all the stars in the region.

So, what you are looking at is a conservative estimate of how crowded that area is. It's like the Times Square of the universe, Engadget writes.

The data obtained from these images will allow researchers to test current theories about star formation, reports tportal.hr.

For this purpose, Webb's NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) instrument captured images of large emissions of ionized hydrogen, the blue color on the lower side of the image.

The hydrogen is likely there due to small and massive stars emitting energetic photons. However, the size of the region was a surprise to researchers, prompting them to further investigate.

Lead researcher of the observation team, Samuel Crowe, said that research with these and upcoming images will enable scientists to understand the nature of massive stars, which is akin to 'learning the story of the origin of a large part of the universe'.