Exploring Cradles of Star Clusters in Galaxy Messier 51 | James Webb Space Telescope

Exploring Cradles of Star Clusters in Galaxy Messier 51 | James Webb Space Telescope

Astronomers using the NASA//European Space Agency/Canadian Space Agency James Webb Space Telescope together with the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope have looked deeply at thousands of young star clusters in four nearby galaxies, studying clusters at different stages of evolution. Watch this "Space Sparks" episode to learn more.

The Messier 51 (M51) galaxy featured here is located about 27 million light years away.

Astronomers have long known that understanding how star clusters come to be is key to unlocking other secrets of galactic evolution. Stars form in clusters, created when clouds of gas collapse under gravity. As more and more stars are born in a collapsing cloud, strong stellar winds, harsh ultraviolet radiation and the supernova explosions of massive stars eventually disperse the cloud, ending star formation before all the gas is used up. Once the cloud of gas a star cluster was born in is gone, its light can bear down on other star-forming regions in the galaxy, too. This process is called stellar feedback, and it means that most of the gas in a galaxy never gets used for star formation. Researching how star clusters develop, then, can answer questions about star formation at a galactic scale.

Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Pedrini, A. Adamo (Stockholm University) and the FEAST JWST team, N. Bartmann (ESA/Webb)
Duration: 1 minute, 27 seconds
Release Date: May 6, 2026

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