Credit: Levy et al.
Astronomers analyzing new images obtained with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have discovered over 1,000 new star cluster candidates within the Cigar Galaxy.
The Cigar Galaxy is an irregular starburst galaxy that has a size of only about 40,800 light years. Despite being over 11 million light-years away, the Cigar Galaxy is one of the closest starburst galaxies to Earth.
To obtain a more accurate consensus of star cluster populations within the Cigar Galaxy, a group of astronomers at the Steward Observatory in Tucson, Arizona have employed JWST’s Near Infrared Camera (NIRcam).
In the paper, published in arXiv, the team describes their initial findings, which identified over 1,300 star cluster candidates with masses exceeding 10,000 solar masses. Additionally, the researchers report that for 87% of these clusters, it was the first time they have ever been detected.
The study also highlights that the cluster candidates are still exhibiting heavy dust extinction, indicating that the sample represents a young heavily reddened population at the center of the Cigar Galaxy.