A proposed JWST survey of the Milky Way's Galactic Center could answer many of astronomy's and astrophysic's most compelling questions.
This overview of the Milky Way's Galactic Center shows the region of the proposed JWST survey. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/S. Stolovy
“JWST has the unique capability to provide us with the necessary, game-changing data,” the authors write. “As a community, we have identified the key unknowns that are limiting the potential of the Galactic Center as a laboratory for extreme astrophysics and understanding how galactic nuclei shape the galaxy population.”
This survey, if it takes place, will help astrophysicists untangle some of nature’s most perplexing, stubborn questions. In their white paper, the multi-national team of astronomers lays out five key questions that the JWST can help address in an observing campaign focused on the GC: This is an ambitious list of questions that helps define the current state of astronomy and astrophysics. Perhaps the only things not mentioned are dark matter and dark energy, and those two phenomena are outside of the JWST’s primary focus.
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