[ETHEREAL MUSIC]
Within galaxies, the bright clouds
are the places where gas and dust collapse to form stars.
In infrared light, NASA's James Webb Space Telescope
sees into these nebulae with unprecedented detail.
Some galaxies have regions with furious levels
of star formation.
Astronomers call them starburst galaxies.
The starburst activity is perhaps too fast,
as it will relatively quickly deplete the available gas
and dust.
Webb observations help explain why and how so many galaxies
undergo these short, vibrant periods of star formation.
Messier 82, known as the Cigar Galaxy,
doesn't look like a starburst galaxy,
until the light of hot hydrogen reveals
a huge outflow of gas and dust, called the galactic wind.
Webb's infrared view sees the full extent of the galactic wind
and pierces through to its source,
a region of intense starburst activity in the galaxy's core.
We can explore M82's structure using a 3D visualization.
The cigar is actually a disk of stars seen mostly edge-on.
Within the disk, Webb detects faint stellar spiral arms,
confirming that M82 is a spiral galaxy.
A central ring of intense star formation
contains hundreds of massive star clusters.
The combined power of supernova explosions within these star
clusters creates the galactic wind.
What can trigger such a spectacular outburst?
The cause appears to be a recent gravitational encounter
between M82 and the more massive spiral galaxy, M81.
Many other galaxy interactions and collisions
produce vibrant star formation.
These gravitational encounters are a known trigger
for starburst activity.
Webb observations provide precise characteristics
of this short-lived but common phase
in the development of galaxies.
They also provide insight into the distant universe,
where Webb has uncovered a collection of starburst galaxies
that existed in the first billion years.
Although images of these important starburst galaxies
are small and fuzzy, their properties
can be inferred from high-resolution observations
of nearby starburst galaxies.
Webb's keen eye is providing novel insights
into local starburst galaxies, as well as
discovering and interpreting these dazzling environments
in distant galaxies.
[ETHEREAL MUSIC]