This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: In this Picture of the Month from the NASA/ESA James Webb Space Telescope, we visit a turbulent cauldron of star formation to see what is brewing inside dense clumps of gas. This is a star-forming region named LHA 120-N 159, or simply N159, located 161,000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), one of the satellite galaxies orbiting the Milky Way galaxy.
This image spans about 230 light-years across. N159 is what astronomers call an H II region: an area of space filled with ionized hydrogen gas. In stellar nurseries such as this one, giant molecular clouds of cold hydrogen gas collapse under gravity, forming new stars.
Many of these stars are extremely massive and hot, and their powerful ultraviolet radiation ionizes the gas around them. This makes H II regions markers of active star formation, and as the ionized gas radiates light, this turns them into the kind of brilliant emission nebula that we see in this image. The fierce stellar winds from these stars sculpt dense ridges and carve open cavities in the gas, which Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) captures here in great detail.
The roiling brew of star formation in N159 is closed in by thick, smoky orange clouds that also billow across the center of the image. The light orange color signifies light emitted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, important carbon-based molecules. The pools of pale blue gas are clouds of H II gas, ionized by the intense ultraviolet light from massive stars.
Dark red filaments cross the center of the image, particularly visible above the blue region on the right side; these are made of cool molecular hydrogen. These filaments are the densest part of the nebula and currently shield new stars from harsh radiation and stellar winds—by zooming in, you can see stars as points of light embedded in these filaments and in the small pillars of orange gas that reach out into the blue bubbles. Eventually, these structures will melt away, leaving their completed stars behind.
The LMC is full of H II regions like N159 conveniently located for us to study, including the larger N79 region and the spectacular Tarantula Nebula. They are not exactly like the star-forming regions within our own galaxy: The LMC's metallicity—its proportion of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, which astronomers call "metals"—is significantly lower than in the Milky Way galaxy. This gives researchers an opportunity to study H II regions in conditions that are more similar to those found in the early universe, helping us to learn about star formation in that time.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
