The Birthplaces of Stars in The Whirlpool Galaxy | Max Planck Institute

The Birthplaces of Stars in The Whirlpool Galaxy | Max Planck Institute

An international research team led by astronomers from the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) has meticulously mapped expansive cold and dense gas regions, the future stellar nurseries, in a galaxy outside the Milky Way with unprecedented detail. Utilizing the NOEMA interferometer, these observations cover a vast expanse within the galaxy, providing insight into varying conditions conducive to star formation. The data marks a ground-breaking achievement in this type of measurement, allowing researchers, for the first time, to scrutinize the early phases of star formation beyond the Milky Way on scales as minute as individual gas clouds birthing stars.

This video belongs to the MPIA press release of the same name and shows an animation of the distribution of diazenylium and hydrogen cyanide within the Whirlpool Galaxy. Starting from an overview of the galaxy captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, the animation zooms in on the central region. Subsequently, overlays of the signatures of both molecules are presented. While their intensity uniformly increases and decreases across the spiral arms, the brightness of hydrogen cyanide emission rises more significantly in the central area than diazenylium.

MPIA Press Release:

https://www.mpia.de/news/science/2023-17-whirlpool-galaxy-swan

Credits: Thomas Müller (HdA/MPIA); molecular data: S. Stuber et al. (MPIA); background image: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Duration: 26 seconds

Release Date: Jan. 5, 2024

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