About 200 light-years from the black hole at the center of the Milky Way lies a region that isn’t as fertile as scientists would think.
This star-forming cloud of gas and dust, Sagittarius C, is brimming with all of the material to make star babies, yet its yield of new stars remains relatively low, despite the fact that it has likely birthed thousands of stars already. Scientists pointed the James Webb Space Telescope, a collaboration of NASA and its European and Canadian space counterparts, at this mysterious stellar nursery to try to figure out why. With its powerful infrared vision, the telescope was able to give a clearer picture.
The findings, published in The Astrophysical Journal in two papers, provide new insights into why some star-forming clouds may appear relatively impotent. Researchers now believe strong magnetic fields may be responsible for the lack of output.
“A big question has been, if there is so much dense gas and dust here, and we know stars form in these kinds of clouds, why are so few stars born in Sagittarius C?” said John Bally, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, in a statement. “For the first time, we are seeing that strong magnetic fields may be playing a major role in stopping star formation.”
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