Mystery of Star Formation in Phoenix Galaxy Cluster Unveiled by James Webb Space Telescope.

Spectroscopic data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is overlaid on an image of the Phoenix cluster, combining observations from Hubble, Chandra, and VLA, revealing the cooling gas driving intense star formation.
Credit: NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, M. McDonald (MIT), M. Reefe (MIT), J. Olmsted (STScI)

Researchers utilizing NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have solved a longstanding puzzle about the Phoenix galaxy cluster, a massive galaxy grouping located 5.8 billion light-years from Earth. Their findings, which build on over a decade of studies using the Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory, and ground-based telescopes, provide groundbreaking insights into the cluster's unusually high star formation rate.

The Phoenix cluster has long captivated astronomers due to its paradoxical behavior. Despite housing a supermassive black hole with around 10 billion times the mass of the Sun at its core, the cluster is forming stars at an exceptional rate. In most similar galaxy clusters, the intense radiation and energetic particles from the central black hole prevent gas from cooling sufficiently to form new stars. But the Phoenix cluster defied this expectation, with researchers perplexed by the existence of extreme cooling gas and intense star formation.

Michael McDonald, a principal investigator from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), compared previous research into the cluster’s cooling process to a ski slope. "The Phoenix cluster has the largest reservoir of hot, cooling gas of any galaxy cluster — like having the busiest chair lift, bringing skiers to the top of the mountain," McDonald explained. "But not all skiers were making it down the mountain," referring to the gas cooling rates. There was a missing piece in their understanding of how this gas was fueling the rapid star formation.

This image of the Phoenix cluster combines data from Hubble, Chandra, and VLA, showing X-rays of hot gas (purple), galaxies (yellow), cooler gas where stars form (light blue), and outburst jets in radio waves (red).
Credit: NASA, CXC, NRAO, ESA, M. McDonald (MIT)

Now, the James Webb Space Telescope has filled in that missing gap. The team used Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and its Medium-Resolution Spectrometer to investigate the cluster’s core in unprecedented detail. Webb identified an intermediary warm gas, located between the very hot gas around 18 million degrees Fahrenheit and the already cooled gas at around 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. This warm gas, at about 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit, plays a key role in the formation of new stars, and its discovery marks a critical breakthrough.

"For the first time, we could directly observe the ‘warm’ gas that was eluding us in earlier studies," McDonald said. The team found that the missing gas was in cavities within the hot gas, a vital component of the cooling process driving star formation.

This discovery was made possible by Webb’s ability to detect faint emissions from ionized atoms like neon and oxygen. At temperatures of 540,000 degrees, the neon emits faint infrared light, while oxygen glows in ultraviolet, making it difficult to detect in traditional instruments. However, Webb’s advanced mid-infrared detectors revealed a "booming" neon signature, allowing the team to track the missing gas.

"Our sensitivity in the mid-infrared wavelength cut through the noise, enabling us to detect this elusive emission," said Michael Reefe, lead author of the study, also from MIT.

This breakthrough has far-reaching implications. While the Phoenix cluster is unique, Webb’s success in detecting cooling gas opens the door to studying other galaxy clusters with similar characteristics. The team hopes to apply this new technique to learn more about how stars form in other regions of the universe, offering clues to the broader processes at play in galaxy evolution.

The James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), continues to revolutionize our understanding of the universe, solving mysteries from our own solar system to distant galaxies and beyond.

Comments

In the triple-star system, KOI-5Ab is seen orbiting the primary star...

KOI-5Ab continues to be a topic of discussion for researchers, as koi-5Ab has been seen orbiting the primary Star, confirming it has also been announced. koi-5ab revolves around the primary star, it was thought to be a planet half the size of Saturn in a planetary system, and was the only other planet candidate to be detected by the KOI-5Ab mission. Kepler mission operations were initiated by NASA in 2009, by the end of spacecraft operations in 2018, the Kepler spacecraft had discovered 2,394 exoplanets, or planets orbiting stars beyond our sun, and about 2,366 exoplanets such There are also those, which are still to be confirmed. David Ciardi, chief scientist at NASA's Exoplanet Science Institute, says the KOI-5AB was abandoned, because it was complicated, and we had thousands of candidates, and we were learning something new every day from Kepler, so that the KOI Mostly forgot to -5. KOI-5Ab is part of the Triple Star system, where KOI-5 is a group of three st...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will be closed.

NASA briefly informed that the Spitzer Space Telescope will be permanently discontinued on January 30, 2020. After about 16 years of discovering the universe in light energy. And by that time, the space shuttle has been working for more than 11 years beyond its prime mission, Spitzer examines the universe's various objects in infrared light. It was in 2003 through the rocket that the American Space Research Organization NASA entered the space and entered the orbit around the Earth. Spitzer rotates the sun on a path similar to that of the Earth but it runs a bit slower. Today it is about 158 million miles (254 million kilometers) away from our planet - more than 600 times the distance between Earth and Moon. The spacing of Spitzer's orbit curve means that when the spacecraft indicates its fixed antenna on the earth to download data or receive commands, its solar panels tend to lean away from the sun. During those periods, to operate the space shut...

SpaceX is launching its next dragon spacecraft.

SpaceX is preparing for its next mission, very soon Spacex will launch the Dragon Spacecraft with its Falcon 9 Rocket. SpaceX is the 18th commercial reproduction service mission, dragon spacecraft will be loaded with dozens of experiments made in space. Launch date: Sunday, July 21, 2019 at 7:35 pm International Space Station (ISS) us The National Laboratory SpaceX's dragon is giving a finalization to more than two dozen payloads for launch in a circular circular laboratory. Many of these payloads are aimed at improving human health on the earth, many of which are focused on drug development. In addition, a series of payloads from identified private sector partners will be launched on this mission. More than 40 student experiments and demonstrations have been included on the 18th Commercial Recepti Services Mission (CRS-18) of SpaceX. One part of ISS American National Laboratory's goal is to encourage and engage next generation scientists. ...

NASA's review of the flight design of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope successfully confirmed.

Critical design work for the NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope has been completed, and the design analysis has also been successfully completed, indicating that all design and developmental engineering work is now complete. The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is being managed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, along with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Caltech/IPAC in Southern California, the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, and a science stream consisting of various scientists team is involved. After an analysis of extensive hardware testing and sophisticated modeling, an independent review panel confirms that the observatory we used, said Julie McEnery, senior project scientist for the Roman Space Telescope at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Ready, it will work. Julie McNairy says of the Roman Space Telescope, what we know, what it will look like, and what it is capable of doing, and now th...

SpaceX,Dragon Cargo Returns Mission in Pacific ends with SplashDown

SpaceX dragon cargo spaceship dropped at 5:48 pm in the Pacific Ocean. The EDT (2:48 p.m. PDT) is located approximately 202 miles southwest of Long Beach, California, which is located at the end of the company's 17th contracted Cargo Resipulli mission for NASA. Spacecraft returned more than 4,200 pounds for other valuable scientific uses. Some scientific investigations of Dragon's return to Earth include: Overview of protein crystals growth, in the ...

A cluster of three galaxies was imaged with the help of the Hubble telescope's camera.

Using the Hubble Telescope's Advanced Camera (ACS) and Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a cluster of three galaxies was imaged. As shown in the image, the two galaxies have merged, scientists say, just as the two galaxies in the upper right appear to be interacting with each other, it is, in fact, stars. Its long trails and the gas spreading from both of them gives the impression that these two have just collided with each other very fast. In the lower left of the image is the bowling-ball-sized galaxy. Scientists say that the interaction between two galaxies occurs over a long time period, however, rarely will the galaxies collide with each other. These galaxies are so close to each other in space that they form a cluster, which scientists have named NGC 7764A. The mass between these galaxies has caused the formation of a shape at the end that, from the point of view of our solar system, resembles the starship known as the USS Enterprise from Star Trek. This gr...

Search This Blog