A new image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope reveals thousands of stars in various stages of formation within a turbulent cosmic cloud located 161,000 light-years from Earth. The image shows intricate details of star formation, from the gathering of cold gas to the emergence of newly formed stars amidst dense clouds of dust.
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The Large Magellanic Cloud is not a gaseous cloud as its name might suggest, but rather an irregularly shaped dwarf galaxy containing billions of stars. It has a diameter of approximately 14,000 light-years, equivalent to about 132 quadrillion kilometers. It is one of the closest galaxies to the Milky Way, orbiting within its gravitational influence, and can be seen with the naked eye from the Southern Hemisphere.
The region shown in the image spans only about 230 light-years, and features dense orange clouds surrounding bright blue bubbles, interspersed with dark red threads and shining stars.
The region is one of the youngest star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud, being less than 3 million years old, and contains thousands of stars that are still in the early stages of their lives.
The importance of the image lies in the fact that it not only reveals a beautiful astronomical scene, but also allows scientists to track different stages of star formation within a single region.
How are stars born inside cosmic clouds?
Stars are born when huge amounts of cold hydrogen gas gather inside molecular clouds, and then some of their parts collapse under the influence of gravity, so their density and temperature gradually increase until stars are formed.
In the N159 region, there are massive, hot stars that emit powerful ultraviolet radiation, stripping electrons from surrounding hydrogen atoms in a process known as ionization. This causes the gas to glow, forming what astronomers call regions of ionized hydrogen (H2), a key indicator of active star formation.
The image reveals the role of massive stars in changing their surrounding environment; their powerful stellar winds push gas outwards, carving out wide cavities and forming dense edges within the cloud.
The orange hues indicate the radiation of complex carbon molecules, while the blue areas represent ionized hydrogen gas. The dark red filaments reveal cold molecular hydrogen gas, within which young stars are temporarily shielded from radiation and stellar winds by dense clouds.
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