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iKillBugs4Work_AMA t1_jc1elzw wrote

Ok, I'm very very new to space and astronomy stuff. Are each of those shining lights stars? Each with their own solar system? I know there are an absolutely incomprehensible amount of stars in the universe. But, if this is just one section of the universe, and there are that many stars in this picture alone, it's even more mind-boggling now.

Or are the shining lights/dots different things? Sorry if this is a dumb question, I'm just trying to understand the universe a bit more and I think space in general is super, super cool. And terrifying. Definitely that too

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anima99 t1_jc2kn8g wrote

Each star doesn't have to be a "system," per se. They can simply be massive balls of gas with rocks/ice/metals around them.

They may form into planet-sized chunks, but it's difficult to determine given their distance. Not to mention some of these stars don't live long enough to form their own systems as they can sometimes collide or spin too fast and just lose form.

Those stars may also be explosions or supernovas, but this is the limit of what I have personally read about without Googling them again.

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iKillBugs4Work_AMA t1_jc2xp0a wrote

Got it. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I know what my next research rabbit hole will be. So much interesting stuff in a place that's so unknown to us.

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toatsblooby t1_jc34jap wrote

This section of space often called "the eagle nebula" is 7000 light years from earth. As I understand it the only thing bright enough to form those shining lights from such a distance would be other stars! (This nebula is still in the milky way so as I understand it those bright lights shouldn't be other galaxies, as they'd be hidden by dust and closer stars.)

I don't know exactly how big of "a spot" this would be in the sky, but my gut tells me this entire image would only take up a chunk of the sky about the size of a small pebble held in your outstretched hand. Space is unfathomably big.

One of the first James Webb images of the deep field shows thousands of GALAXIES in a single image, as well as some stars in our own galaxy in the foreground. They aimed the telescope at a very dark section of the sky for many hours to actually capture enough light to produce the image!

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