James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

NASA's Webb Peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy (NIRCam and MIRI)

Here’s Webb’s look at the Digel Clouds, an outpost of star-formation located in the Milky Way’s “outer rim.” ? Webb’s sharp infrared eye captured activity within star clusters in these molecular clouds in unprecedented detail. Astronomers call this region the “Extreme Outer Galaxy” with Digel Clouds 1 and 2 located 58,000 light years away from the Galactic Center. (For context, we are 26,000 light years from the center of the Milky Way). Webb observations now allow scientists to study star formation out there with the same level of detail as within our own solar neighborhood. Read more: go.nasa.gov/4dZJHwO Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Michael Ressler (NASA-JPL) Image description: At center right is a compact star cluster composed of luminous red, blue, and white points of light. Faint jets with clumpy, diffuse material extend in various directions from the bright cluster. Above and to the right is a smaller cluster of stars. Translucent red wisps of material stretch across the scene, though there are patches and a noticeable gap in the top left corner that reveal the black background of space. Background galaxies are scattered across this swath of space, appearing as small blue-white and orange-white dots or fuzzy, thin disks. There are two noticeably larger points, foreground stars, with diffraction spikes: an orange-white point on the left, and a blue-white point in the top right. Image & Description by NASA