James Webb captures dazzling image of giant star supercluster

Star superclusters like Westerlund 1 are young collections of stars that significantly outweigh our Sun. In the case of Westerlund 1, we are talking about stars that have a combined mass ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 solar masses, all within a small area with a diameter of just six light-years. For comparison, our nearest star, Proxima Centauri, is about 4.2 light-years away from Earth, highlighting how compact this space is on a cosmic scale.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Westerlund 1 is the presence of "yellow hypergiants” – stars about a million times brighter than our Sun. Although they are impressive due to their size and brightness, their lifespans are short.

Scientists estimate that the cluster Westerlund 1 is just 3.5 to 5 million years old. While this is an unimaginably long time from a human perspective, on a cosmic scale, it is merely the blink of an eye. Such a young supercluster is a true treasure trove of data for astronomers, allowing them to better understand the processes involved in the formation and evolution of massive stars.

Despite their young age, these stars lead short and intense lives, which means that in the next 40 million years, the cluster is expected to produce about 1,500 supernovae. Such events are crucial for understanding how the largest stars in the universe die and provide valuable information about the processes that shape galaxies.

Westerlund 1 is not only the largest but also the closest star supercluster to us, located "just" 12,000 light-years away from Earth. This proximity offers astronomers an ideal opportunity to study it and better understand the mechanisms that drive star formation in our galaxy. In the past, the Milky Way produced significantly more such clusters; however, over billions of years, star-forming activity has significantly decreased, and today only a few such clusters still exist.

Westerlund 1 is a remnant from a time when our galaxy was rich in young, massive stars. Studies of such structures are extremely important because they allow scientists to understand the earlier stages of the Milky Way's evolution and the processes shaping current and future generations of stars.

The image of Westerlund 1 was captured as part of a broader research program aimed at studying this cluster and another known supercluster – Westerlund 2. For this task, the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), one of the Webb telescope's most important tools, was used. NIRCam allows the study of distant and hard-to-reach areas of the cosmos and records phenomena such as gravitational lensing, which can provide valuable data on the expansion rate of the universe.

The image of Westerlund 1, taken by the James Webb telescope, is not only a fascinating work of science but also a window to the past. Each star shining in this spectacular collection is a reminder of the immense processes occurring in the cosmos. For scientists and ordinary people alike, Westerlund 1 is evidence of the many undiscovered mysteries the universe holds for us, and the Webb telescope's mission is another step in uncovering these enigmas.