Astronomers found something very strange at the core of our Milky Way galaxy

In one of the most extreme regions of the Milky Way, just 200 light-years from our galaxy’s central supermassive black hole, a dense cloud of gas and dust has birthed thousands of stars. 

Known as Sagittarius C, this turbulent environment at the Milky Way’s core is now being seen in unprecedented detail thanks to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

The images reveal strange magnetic structures that may hold the key to a longstanding cosmic mystery.

A new study offers a deeper look into why this region – despite being rich in interstellar gas – doesn’t form stars at the rate astronomers once expected. 

Extremes at the Milky Way’s core

The research also captures Sagittarius C’s dramatic structure, including long glowing filaments of hot hydrogen gas shaped by powerful magnetic fields, forming patterns that resemble strands of spaghetti stretching across light-years.

John Bally, a professor in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder, is the study’s lead author.  

“It’s in a part of the galaxy with the highest density of stars and massive, dense clouds of hydrogen, helium, and organic molecules,” said Bally. “It’s one of the closest regions we know of that has extreme conditions similar to those in the young universe.”

Magnetic fields and strange structures

The findings were led by Bally alongside Samuel Crowe, an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, and Rubén Fedriani of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Spain. 

The research is part of a larger observation campaign that Crowe proposed. Despite being just a fourth-year student, he has already been named a Rhodes Scholar for his work.

“Because of these magnetic fields, Sagittarius C has a fundamentally different shape, a different look than any other star forming region in the galaxy away from the galactic center,” Crowe said.

The images captured by the Webb telescope showcase that difference vividly.

Unlike smoother star-forming areas like the Orion Nebula, Sagittarius C is laced with bright, thin filaments of plasma – hot, ionized gas – each stretching several light-years.

Complex web of plasma filaments

The plasma filaments thread through the region, creating a complex web that surprised even seasoned researchers. “We were definitely not expecting those filaments,” Fedriani said. “It was a completely serendipitous discovery.”

Bally believes the magnetic environment is responsible for Sagittarius C’s strange architecture.

In the Milky Way’s core, the gravitational power of the central black hole – estimated to be four million times more massive than our sun – swirls surrounding gas into motion, which in turn stretches and amplifies the local magnetic fields.

These fields appear to shape the plasma into filamentary structures, altering how stars form.

Turbulent nursery for new stars

Stars emerge from molecular clouds – vast collections of gas and dust that collapse under their own gravity. In regions like the Orion Nebula, this process unfolds relatively predictably. But Sagittarius C tells a more chaotic story.

In a companion paper, also published in The Astrophysical Journal, Crowe, Bally, and colleagues examined the young protostars of the galaxy forming within Sagittarius C.

The experts found that even as these stars are born, they emit powerful radiation that disrupts the cloud around them, blasting away the material needed for future star formation.

“Even the sun, we think, formed in a massive cluster like this,” Bally said. “Over billions of years, all of our sibling stars have drifted away.”

The filaments observed by Webb suggest that magnetic fields in Sagittarius C may act as a counterforce to gravity. 

While molecular clouds try to collapse to form stars, magnetic pressure may resist that collapse – offering a possible explanation for why fewer stars form in this region of the Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) than earlier models predicted.

Harsh conditions at the galaxy’s core

Sagittarius C is not just unusual – it’s also aging. As the stars within it continue to push away remaining gas and dust with radiation and stellar winds, the molecular cloud that gave rise to the region’s current burst of star formation is vanishing. 

Bally estimates that this stellar nursery could fade entirely within a few hundred thousand years. “It’s almost the end of the story,” he said.

Even as Sagittarius C winds down, it continues to inform our understanding of how galaxies evolve.

The Webb telescope’s ability to peer through thick clouds of interstellar material with infrared light has opened a new window into the mysterious and dynamic environments at the Milky Way’s core.

By revealing how magnetic fields, gravity, and radiation interact in one of the galaxy’s harshest places, this study offers a clearer picture of how stars are born – and sometimes prevented from being born – in the heart of the cosmos.

The study is published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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