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The high resolution and mid infrared sensitivity of Webb's MIRI, or Mid Infrared Instrument, revealed this region in unprecedented detail, including glowing cosmic dust heated by very young massive stars. The reddest area on the right, half of MIRI's image, known as Sagittarius B2 North, is one of the most molecularly rich regions known, but astronomers have never seen it with such clarity. The difference longer wavelengths of light make, even within the dark, when comparing the images from Webb's MIRI and NIRCAM, or Near Infrared Camera Instruments, glowing gas and dust appear dramatically in mid infrared light, while all but the brightest stars disappear from view. In contrast to MIRI, colorful stars steal the show in Webb's NIRCAM image, punctuated occasionally by bright clouds of gas and dust. Further, some of these will reveal details of their masses and ages, which will help astronomers better understand the process of star formation in this dense, active galactic center region. Has it been going on for millions of years, or has some unknown process triggered it only recently? Astronomers hope Webb will shed light on why star formation in the galactic center is so disproportionately low. Though the region is stocked with plenty of gaseous raw material on the whole, and is nearly as productive as Sagittarius B. While Sagittarius B has only 10% of the galactic center's gas, it produces 50% of its stars. Humans have been studying stars for thousands of years, and there is still a lot to understand, said Nazar. A graduate student at the University of Florida and the co-principal investigator of the study. For everything new Webb is showing us, there are also new mysteries to explore. And it's exciting to be a part of that ongoing discovery.

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