The stars at lower right in this image – represented in blue – are a portion of the Leo P dwarf galaxy, location some 5 million light-years away. But look at the other objects in the image. Nearly all are distant galaxies in the direction of the dwarf galaxy Leo P. This image is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb orbits some million miles away from Earth at the 2nd Lagrange point (L2) in the Earth-sun system. NASA said:
Leo P is a star-forming galaxy located about 5 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. A team of scientists collected data from about 15,000 stars in Leo P to deduce its star formation history. They determined that it went through three phases: an initial burst of star formation, a ‘pause’ that lasted several billion years, and then a new round of star formation that is still continuing.
The image is from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which combines infrared light at wavelengths of 0.9 microns (represented in blue), 1.5 microns (green), and 2.77 microns (red).
The stars in Leo P appear blue in comparison to the background galaxies for several reasons. Young, massive stars that are common in star-forming galaxies are predominantly blue. Leo P also is extremely lacking in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and the resulting ‘metal-poor’ stars tend to be bluer than sun-like stars.
A bubble-like structure at bottom center is a region of ionized hydrogen surrounding a hot, massive O-type star.
Read more about Leo P here, from Space Telescope Science Institute
Bottom line: Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal patterns of star formation in an isolated dwarf galaxy called Leo P. The image also captured a host of other galaxies.
The post Leo P and a host of other galaxies first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/nKcJzB4
The stars at lower right in this image – represented in blue – are a portion of the Leo P dwarf galaxy, location some 5 million light-years away. But look at the other objects in the image. Nearly all are distant galaxies in the direction of the dwarf galaxy Leo P. This image is from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. The Webb orbits some million miles away from Earth at the 2nd Lagrange point (L2) in the Earth-sun system. NASA said:
Leo P is a star-forming galaxy located about 5 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. A team of scientists collected data from about 15,000 stars in Leo P to deduce its star formation history. They determined that it went through three phases: an initial burst of star formation, a ‘pause’ that lasted several billion years, and then a new round of star formation that is still continuing.
The image is from Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera), which combines infrared light at wavelengths of 0.9 microns (represented in blue), 1.5 microns (green), and 2.77 microns (red).
The stars in Leo P appear blue in comparison to the background galaxies for several reasons. Young, massive stars that are common in star-forming galaxies are predominantly blue. Leo P also is extremely lacking in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and the resulting ‘metal-poor’ stars tend to be bluer than sun-like stars.
A bubble-like structure at bottom center is a region of ionized hydrogen surrounding a hot, massive O-type star.
Read more about Leo P here, from Space Telescope Science Institute
Bottom line: Researchers used the James Webb Space Telescope to reveal patterns of star formation in an isolated dwarf galaxy called Leo P. The image also captured a host of other galaxies.
The post Leo P and a host of other galaxies first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/nKcJzB4
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