JWST Identifies Cooling Gas in Phoenix Cluster, Unlocking Star Formation Process

The James Webb Space Telescope has detected the missing cooling gas in the Phoenix Cluster, a galaxy cluster located 5.8 billion light-years away. Researchers used the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to identify gas at around 540,000 degrees Fahrenheit trapped in cavities within the cluster. This discovery resolves a long-standing mystery of how stars continue to form …