Peering through a big ball of dusty fog, the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array (SMA) was able to capture the first-ever glimpse of a giant star cluster formation in W49A, according to a press statement.
W49A is touted to be the Milky Way's best kept secret. Though this star-formation region is actually brighter than the Orion nebula, the thick layer of dusty fog makes it difficult for scientists to view. Therefore, very little is known about this region.
In a break-through discovery, the Smithsonian's Submillimeter Array was able to capture the first-ever glimpse of W49A and spotted a giant star cluster in the making. This active star formation is being fed by "streamers of infalling gas."
Located at a distance of 36,000 light-years from Earth, W49A is a perfect example of a nearby "starburst" galaxy, where star formation takes place 100 times faster than in our galaxy.
This giant, yet compact star cluster is located in the heart of W49A. Surprisingly, there are more than 100,000 stars already existing in a radius of 10 light years from the cluster. In contrast, the Sun has less than ten stars lying around it in the same radius. So you can well imagine how big the newly forming star cluster is. The star formation in this region is so rapid that scientists predict W49A will be as crowded as a globular cluster in another few million years.
The most fascinating part of the newly captured images was the intricate details it revealed about W49A. The scientists spotted a complex network of filaments feeding gas into the center, much like tributaries feed water into rivers on Earth. The gaseous filaments in W49A form three big streamers, which funnel star-building material inward at speeds up about 4,500 miles per hour. In addition, the compactness of the star cluster will allow it to remain intact for billions of years.
"We suspect that the organized architecture seen in W49A is rather common in massive stellar cluster-formation," said Hauyu Baobab, one of the researchers, in the statement.
The study was published in the December 2013 issue of Astrophysical Journal.
