Scientists access space telescope to the stars!

Space scientists will get their best look yet at the ‘elemental stew of life’ after being awarded time on the celebrated James Webb Space Telescope.

The ground-breaking telescope offers an unprecedented window into the centre of the Milky Way, and will give astrophysicists new insights on how the Solar System formed 4.5 billion years ago.

The central zone is the only place where all phases of the stellar life cycle can be resolved by studying the interaction between star formation, the dynamics of structure assembly, and feedback from central black holes.

“James Webb’s unparalleled angular resolution and sensitivity will allow us to pick out where individual stars and planetary systems are forming in a region similar to the environment in which we think the Solar System formed,” explained Professor Steve Longmore, co-leader of the study.

Map of the Galaxy

Steve and collaborators will use JWST’s near-infrared camera to produce the most detailed infrared map ever made of the centre of our Galaxy, cataloguin over 100 million stars across the inner 300 light-years of the Milky Way.

He believes the study will address fundamental questions about how the Galactic Centre assembled over cosmic time, the nature of star formation near its four-million-solar-mass black hole, and the structure of interstellar gas and dust.

The international team won prestigious access from the Space Telescope Science Institute and says the excitement of using the scope is palpable in the team at LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute at with their collaborators in the US.

“The JW is extraordinary. Its’ longer wavelengths will allow us to peer through the huge amounts of gas and dust that stop even powerful telescopes like Hubble being able to see the centre of the Galaxy.”

$24m in 'view time'

The survey exploits a unique combination of infrared filters that will, for the first time, allow the dust obscuration toward each individual star to be measured and corrected — a capability the Telescope Allocation Committee described as providing “astounding legacy value.”

The JWST is possibly the most iconic and oversubscribed telescope ever built, with an operational cost of $170k/hour! LJMU and its partner have been awarded 143.2 hours, equivalent to $24m of view time.

Steve and the team will use the study as a basis for an ERC Advanced Grant or Synergy Grant.