(ORDO NEWS) — There, the rarefied dust and gas that fills the voids sometimes gather together to form dense clouds.
This is where stars are born, formed from knots of material that collapse and ignite under the force of gravity, illuminating the universe.
Shrouded in mist, the process of star formation itself is still largely a mystery. But the James Webb Telescope (JWST), with its unprecedented infrared resolution, sees things our eyes can’t.
Images from the space telescope are being used to study star formation in 19 nearby spiral galaxies, and to map the gas and dust that ripples around.
The project is called Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxy (PHANGS).
“With JWST, you can create incredible, very high-resolution maps of nearby galaxies that provide amazingly detailed images of the interstellar medium,” says physicist Karin Sandstrom of the University of California, San Diego.
The reason JWST can see parts of galaxies that other telescopes can’t see is not only because it’s the most powerful space telescope, but also because it sees the universe in infrared.
Shorter wavelengths of light, such as optical light, scatter small particles and therefore generally do not penetrate dense clouds.
Longer wavelengths, such as infrared, are much more likely to slip through dust unhindered.
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