Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, S. Crowe (UVA), J. Bally (CU Boulder), SARAO, Heywoord et al. (2022), A. Pagan (STScI), and STScI

Labeling, compass arrows, and scale bars provide context for these MeerKAT and James Webb Space Telescope images. The star-forming region Sagittarius C, captured by the James Webb Space Telescope, is about 200 light-years from the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, Sagittarius A*.

Huge vertical filamentary structures in the MeerKAT radio data echo those Webb captured on a smaller scale, in infrared, in a blue-green hydrogen cloud. Astronomers think the strong magnetic fields in the heart of the galaxy are shaping the filaments.

The spectral index at the lower left shows how color was assigned to the radio data to create the image. On the negative end, there is non-thermal emission, stimulated by electrons spiraling around magnetic field lines. On the positive side, thermal emission is coming from hot, ionized plasma.

For Webb, color is assigned by shifting the infrared spectrum to visible light colors. The shortest infrared wavelengths are bluer, and the longer wavelengths appear more red.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-115

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: https://www.stsci.edu/copyright