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Heart of the Milky Way

24 November 2023
Astronomy, cosmology

At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231121175511.htm … the James Webb Space Telescope is at it again – after peering at the heart of the Milky Way. Nothing to do with the black holes it would seem, and a little off target. It has beamed back images of a portion of the dense centre of our galaxy in fine detail. The star forming region known as Sagittarius C. It is 300 light years from the central supermassive black hole – Sagittarius A. Are they having that for dessert.

There are roughly 500,000 stars in a cluser of young stars. Some are thought to be still forming and gaining mass. It looked like a bonfire of stars. There were so many of them. At the bottom of the structure there is a huge protostar – 30 times the mass of our Sun. The cloud from which the stars are emerging is so dense that light from stars behind it cannot be seen. Webb also captured an infrared image of ionised hydrogen surrounding the lower ends of the cloud. This is a result of energetic photons.It seems the galactic centre is a crowded and tumultous place. Is there any room for a black hole?

At https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/11/231121175417.htm … University of Leeds astronomers say they have found a triple star. They are immense Be stars – surrounded by a disc of gas. The discs have a similar appearance to the rings of Saturn – but why have they formed? So, we already have systems with 2 suns, and these are quite common. We now have planets in a system with 3 suns, Will these triples morph into black holes?

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