NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope observed an extreme outer galaxy located more than 58,000 light-years away from the Galactic Center using its NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) and MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument).
These select regions within two molecular clouds are known as Digel Clouds 1 and 2, which are basically star clusters undergoing bursts of star formation. Both of these regions are within our galaxy, but relatively poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This composition makes them more like dwarf galaxies and our own Milky Way in its early history. What you see above is the main cluster of Cloud 2S that contains young, newly formed stars. What’s next? Astronomers plan to revisit this outpost in the Milky Way to discover answers to a variety of current mysteries, including the relative abundance of stars of various masses within Extreme Outer Galaxy star clusters.
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We know from studying other nearby star-forming regions that as stars form during their early life phase, they start emitting jets of material at their poles. What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars. It’s a little bit like a firecracker, where you see things shooting this way and that,” said Mike Ressler, second author of the study and principal investigator of the observing program.
