NGC 604 is similar to familiar starbirth regions in our Milky Way Galaxy, such as the Orion Nebula, but it is much larger in extent and contains many more recently formed stars.
NGC 604 is a star-forming region located 2.73 million light-years away in the Triangulum Galaxy.
Also known as RX J0134.5+3047, it was discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on September 11, 1784.
NGC 604, which is estimated to be around 3.5 million years old, extends to some 1,300 light-years across.
In the new images from the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope of NGC 604, cavernous bubbles and stretched-out filaments of gas etch a more detailed and complete tapestry of star birth than seen in the past.
Sheltered among NGC 604’s dusty envelopes of gas are more than 200 of the hottest, most massive kinds of stars, all in the early stages of their lives.
These types of stars are B-types and O-types, the latter of which can be more than 100 times the mass of our own Sun.
It’s quite rare to find this concentration of them in the nearby Universe. In fact, there’s no similar region within our own Milky Way Galaxy.
This concentration of massive stars, combined with its relatively close distance, means NGC 604 gives astronomers an opportunity to study these objects at a fascinating time early in their life.
“In Webb’s near-infrared NIRCam image, the most noticeable features are tendrils and clumps of emission that appear bright red, extending out from areas that look like clearings, or large bubbles in the nebula,” the Webb astronomers said.
“Stellar winds from the brightest and hottest young stars have carved out these cavities, while ultraviolet radiation ionizes the surrounding gas. This ionized hydrogen appears as a white and blue ghostly glow.”
“The bright orange-colored streaks in the Webb near-infrared image signify the presence of carbon-based molecules…
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