James Webb telescope clicks a beautiful star-forming region
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So James Webb Space Telescope has sent another image our way. That it would be mesmerising and breathtaking is a given as all things in space tend to sparkle brilliantly in a way that makes us redefine idea of beauty altogether.
But our improved tech and better telescope (a brand new space telescope to start with) gives us unprecedented ability to glean into not only unknown corners of space but also to obtain greater details about celestial bodies in our immediate cosmic neighbourhood.
Take Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) for example. James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may help us know a thing or two in more detail about it. For the knowledgeable among us, this will open new academic vistas. But even if you are not an astronomer, you can always marvel at the beauty, now enhanced by better images clicked by JWST.
The SMC is a ‘satellite galaxy’ of Milky Way. NASA has now posted an image of NGC 346 taken by JWST. It Is the brightest and largest star-forming region in the SMC. The SMC is considered to be a ‘primitive’ galaxy than the Milky Way because it is believed it has less amount of heavy elements. Cosmic dust is made of heavy elements mainly. And that’s why is was believed that NGC 346 would have less amount of cosmic dust.
But the image taken by JWST using its Mini Infrared Instrument (MIRI) reveals presence of the cosmic dust. The blue tendrils in the image above are trace emissions from materials such as dusty silicates and chemical molecules known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The red light visible in the image represents regions of warm dust heated by bigger stars in the region.
The arc of light in the centre left can be a reflection of light from a star which is near the centre of the arc.You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.
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