Recently, the JAMS WEBBA cosmic telescope made an amazing discovery – recorded a new star-forming cloud of gas, located in the galaxy next to ours, which amazes with its beauty. This object is the birthplace of the stars, and thanks to the infrared vision of the telescope, scientists have received a new look at these incredible nebulae.
The image obtained using the Miri telescope infrared tool demonstrates the N79 nebula in the large Magellanic cloud (LMC) – one of the largest and closest to the Milky Way of satellite galaxies. N79 extends to 1.630 light years, but the picture captured only on its southern part.
The uniqueness of the infrared type of Miri lies in the possibility of deep penetration inside the nebula, highlighting the luminous mobile gas, which is located in the depths of the cloud and would remain invisible to the telescope working only in the visible spectrum.
The peculiarity of the nebula is not only hidden gas and dust, but also the presence of stars and protosts in it. Inside, an object was found, bright enough to create a characteristic pattern of diffraction peaks. This pattern appears due to the secondary mirror of the telescope, held by three racks. The light passing by them is subjected to diffraction, creating six spikes. But the picture shows eight peaks because of the hexagonal mirrors of the system, four of which coincide in the images.
N79 nebula is similar to another nebula, removed by JWST – tarantula nebula or 30 Doradus, also located in LMC. Both of these nebulae produce stars with such a speed that was not observed in our galaxy billions of years. Moreover, N79 does this twice as effective than 30 Doradus.
Studying the Star formation process in LMC allows you to get an idea of similar processes in a distant universe. LMC, having a more primitive composition and more active nature compared to the Milky way, serves as an excellent model of galaxies from the distant past.