Stars form in large molecular clouds , where the gas gets cool enough for it to contract and then , under gravity , to collapse into stars . But as these stars lead off to shine they hot up up the gas pedal , form large house of cards , or superbubbles , that can be spotted by stargazer . And now you may see the first elaborated prototype of these superbubbles in thephantom galaxy .

The phantom galaxy ( or M74 or NGC 628 , as it is technically know ) has been observed by JWST as part of thePHANG Survey . figure of speech made public and/or processed by citizen scientists show the tendril of gasolene that bear out this spiral galaxy . This newfangled image , present by Dr Elizabeth Watkins at the National Astronomy Meeting 2023 , represents more than just JWST ’s keen center .

The image include a combination of reflexion from theHubble Space Telescopeand the MUSE legal document from the Very Large Telescope . It shows where the stars are creating these superbubbles , and how they are shaping this extragalactic nebula with them .

In this image Watkins and team have combined MIRI 7.7micron JWST (red) with MUSE Halpha (green) and HST b band (blue) to show the connections between young stars and the ionised gas they produce, which results in large cavities in JWST data called superbubbles. This is the first detailed view of these bubbles and shows us how young stars impact the surrounding cold gas.

M74 shows off all its superbubbles in between hot and cold gas.Image credit: ESA, NASA & CSA, E Watkins and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Image courtesy of Dr E. Watkins.

PHANG aims to survey stars , star clustering , and junk in 19 nearby wandflower that have also been observe by the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array ( ALMA ) . The goal is to learn star formation in Galax urceolata from begin to end . And Dr Watkins has had some pretty unbelievable observation from ALMA as well .

ALMA ’s many aerial can track carbon monoxide to see where the insensate gas is , but it has a resolution four times low-toned than JWST ’s . Still , the team has found 88 superbubbles in 18 wandflower . ALMA cut across the cold throttle and Hubble the star establishment , the emission from the atomic number 8 ( OIII ) – which is where there are jar andsupernovae – and that of hydrogen ( Hα ) , where the gas is being heated by the maven .

“ Since star work from cold molecular accelerator , seeing how stars impact this gas aid me understand how stars encroachment and alter their own formation . These 88 superbubbles represent the tumid sample of molecular superbubbles found in nearby galaxies , ” Dr Watkins told IFLScience .

The resolution of ALMA CO is 4times lower than JWST so less bubbles are found. The legend on the plot indicates what is being shown and the colours. In brief: ALMA CO looks at the cold molecular gas, which is the fuel for star formation and is pushed into shells. HST looks at the stars. The OIII shows shocked gas and supernova, and Halpha shows where cold gas is being heated and ionised by the stars.

The 88 superbubbles from the ALMA and Hubble observations.Image credit: ALMA, HST, PHANG Collaboration. Image courtesy of Dr E. Watkins.

The phantom galax is located 32 million light - years from Earth in the constellation of Pisces .

The bailiwick based on these observations was published originally this year inThe Astrophysical Journal Letters .