By Kenna Hughes-Castleberry published yesterday (space.com)
The Westerlund 2 star cluster is home to some of the Milky Way’s brightest stars.
This stellar nursery located in the Carina Nebula is a key focal point for astronomers. (Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, V. Almendros-Abad, M. Guarcello, K. Monsch and the EWOCS team)Share
Recently, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took a stunning image of the star cluster known as Westerlund 2, located in a stellar nursery called Gum 29 found within the Carina Nebula. The cluster is 6-to-13 light-years across and has some of the hottest and biggest stars found in the Milky Way.
What is it?
While the Westerlund 2 cluster was the subject of Hubble’s 25th anniversary image in 2015, JWST has taken a different view of the area, resulting in what previous telescopes struggled to count: the cluster’s faintest members.
The JWST helped uncover for the first time the full population of brown dwarfs in this massive young star cluster, including objects as small as around 10 times the mass of Jupiter.
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Brown dwarfs are grouped under the “dwarf” umbrella because they are star-like objects that form from collapsing gas clouds, yet never become big enough to sustain long-term hydrogen fusion like true stars.
Where is it?
The Carina Nebula is located in the Carina constellation, around 20,000 light-years away from Earth.
Why is it amazing?
Finding brown dwarfs in this harsh and brilliant environment is important because it helps astronomers answer a key question: How efficiently are low-mass objects, like brown dwarfs, being made when there’s intense radiation in the area? A complete census of the stars in the image lets scientists compare the Westerlund 2 cluster to quieter star-forming regions and test whether extreme conditions change the “mix” of the objects that are formed.
Want to learn more?
You can learn more about the James Webb Space Telescope and star formation.
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Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Content Manager at Space.com. Formerly, she was the Science Communicator at JILA, a physics research institute. Kenna is also a freelance science journalist. Her beats include quantum technology, AI, animal intelligence, corvids, and cephalopods.