Heart of the Milky Way (Sagittarius C) - Section A

In this magical view of the heart of our home galaxy, Webb reveals in unprecedented detail a roughly 25 light-years-wide portion of the Milky Way’s dense center. An estimated 250,000 stars shine in this image of the Sagittarius C region, along with some as-yet unidentified features.  A cluster of baby stars glows through the cocoon of a dusty cloud. At the heart of the cluster is a still-forming star over 30 times the mass of our Sun. Wrapping around the dense cloud of dust is a previously unseen region of ionized hydrogen gas (colored cyan). Within are intriguing needle-like structures, chaotically oriented, that scientists intend to further study.  Sagittarius C is only 25,000 light years away from Earth, close enough for Webb to study individual stars. This data will help astronomers learn more about star formation in an extreme cosmic environment — and along with it, the origin story of our universe. An alternate, full-width, version is also available.