![\"Star](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/wd1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>Westerlund 1 is the biggest and closest \u201csuper\u201d\u00a0star cluster<\/a>\u00a0to Earth. New data from\u00a0NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory<\/a>, in combination with other NASA telescopes, is helping astronomers delve deeper into this galactic factory where\u00a0stars<\/a>\u00a0are vigorously being produced.<\/p>\n This is the first data to be publicly released from a project called the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open Clusters Survey, or EWOCS, led by astronomers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo. As part of EWOCS, Chandra observed Westerlund 1 for about 12 days in total.<\/p>\n Currently, only a handful of stars form in our\u00a0galaxy<\/a>\u00a0each year, but in the past the situation was different. The Milky Way used to produce many more stars, likely hitting its peak of churning out dozens or hundreds of stars per year about 10 billion years ago and then gradually declining ever since. Astronomers think that most of this star formation took place in massive clusters of stars, known as \u201csuper star clusters,\u201d like Westerlund 1. These are young clusters of stars that contain more than 10,000 times the mass of the Sun. Westerlund 1 is between about 3 million and 5 million years old.<\/p>\n This new image shows the new deep Chandra data along with previously released data from NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope. The\u00a0X-rays<\/a>\u00a0detected by Chandra show young stars (mostly represented as white and pink) as well as diffuse heated gas throughout the cluster (colored pink, green, and blue, in order of increasing temperatures for the gas). Many of the stars picked up by Hubble appear as yellow and blue dots.<\/p>\n Only a few super star clusters still exist in our galaxy, but they offer important clues about this earlier era when most of our galaxy\u2019s stars formed. Westerlund 1 is the biggest of these remaining super star clusters in the Milky Way and contains a mass between 50,000 and 100,000 Suns. It is also the closest super star cluster to Earth at about 13,000\u00a0light-years<\/a>.<\/p>\n These qualities make Westerlund 1 an excellent target for studying the impact of a super star cluster\u2019s environment on the formation process of stars and planets as well as the evolution of stars over a broad range of masses.<\/p>\n This new deep Chandra dataset of Westerlund 1 has more than tripled the number of X-ray sources known in the cluster. Before the EWOCS project, Chandra had detected 1,721 sources in Westerlund 1. The EWOCS data found almost 6,000 X-ray sources, including fainter stars with lower masses than the Sun. This gives astronomers a new population to study.<\/p>\n One revelation is that 1,075 stars detected by Chandra are squeezed into the middle of Westerlund 1 within four light-years of the cluster\u2019s center. For a sense of how crowded this is, four light-years is about the distance between the Sun and the next closest star to Earth.<\/p>\n The diffuse emission seen in the EWOCS data represents the first detection of a halo of hot gas surrounding the center of Westerlund 1, which astronomers think will be crucial in assessing the cluster\u2019s formation and evolution, and giving a more precise estimate of its mass.<\/p>\n A\u00a0paper published<\/a>\u00a0in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics, led by Mario Guarcello from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in Palermo, discusses the survey and the first results. Follow-up papers will discuss more about the results, including detailed studies of the brightest X-ray sources. This future work will analyze other EWOCS observations, involving NASA\u2019s James Webb Space Telescope and NICER (Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer).<\/p>\n NASA\u2019s Marshall Space Flight Center manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory\u2019s Chandra X-ray Center controls science from Cambridge Massachusetts and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts.<\/p>\n Read more from NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory.<\/a><\/p>\n For more Chandra images, multimedia and related materials, visit:<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission\/chandra-x-ray-observatory\/<\/a><\/p>\n This is an image of the Westerlund 1 star cluster and the surrounding region, as detected in X-ray and optical light. The black canvas of space is peppered with colored dots of light of various sizes, mostly in shades of red, green, blue, and white.<\/p>\n At the center of the image is a semi-transparent, red and yellow cloud of gas encircling a grouping of tightly packed gold stars. The shape and distribution of stars in the cluster call to mind effervescent soda bubbles dancing above the ice cubes of a recently poured beverage.<\/p>\n Megan Watzke Jonathan Deal Powered by WPeMatico<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n Get The Details…<\/a> Westerlund 1 is the biggest and closest \u201csuper\u201d\u00a0star cluster\u00a0to Earth. New data from\u00a0NASA\u2019s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in combination with other NASA telescopes, is helping astronomers delve deeper into this galactic factory where\u00a0stars\u00a0are vigorously being produced. This is the first data to be publicly released from a project called the Extended Westerlund 1 and 2 Open [\u2026] Continue reading Visual Description:<\/h2>\n
News Media Contact<\/h2>\n
Chandra X-ray Center
Cambridge, Mass.
617-496-7998<\/p>\n
Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville, Ala.
256-544-0034<\/p>\n
\nLee Mohon <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"