Webb Telescope Sees Stars Forming in the Cartwheel Galaxy
The James Webb Space Telescope has peered through dust and gas to reveal star formation in a rare wheel-shaped galaxy that formed in a galactic crash long ago.
The galaxy, called the Cart wheel for its striking resemblance to an old-fashioned car wheel, has already been studied by the The Hubble Space Telescopebut Webb’s infrared gaze revealed a plethora of never-before-seen details in the galaxyits structure.
Infrared light, which is essentially heat, penetrates through dust clouds, allowing the James Webb Space Telescope to peer into regions of space that are obscured by optical telescopes, such as Hubble. In the new images, Webb instruments NIRCam and MIRIrevealed individual stars in the star-forming regions of the Cartwheel galaxy’s outer ring, as well as clusters of very young stars around the galaxy’s central supermassive black holewhich is also shrouded in dust.
Gallery: The first photos from the James Webb Space Telescope
The wheel, located at about 500 million Light years Far from Earth in the constellation Sculptor in the southern sky, lies a fairly rare type of galaxy that astronomers call a ring galaxy. Scientists believe that a long time ago the wheel was a common spiral galaxysimilar to our Milky Way. Then, about 700 to 800 million light-years ago, it collided with a smaller galaxy.
The crash changed its shape and structure from what astronomers can see today, forming two ring-like structures, one surrounding the galactic center and the other framing the entire galaxy. The two rings extend outward from the center of the galaxy like “ripples in a pond,” the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), which operates Webb and is based in Maryland, said in a statement. . statement (opens in a new tab).
As the outer ring expands, it pushes out dust and gas that surrounds the galaxy and triggers star formation, according to STScI. Areas where new stars are born appear as small blue dots in the image and are scattered throughout the galaxy, but mostly concentrated in the outer ring.
Webb’s observations also reveal areas rich in hydrocarbons and silicate dust, which form the spokes connecting the inner and outer ring. Earlier Hubble images could also distinguish rays, but Webb’s new observations make those features much clearer, STScI said.
The Cartwheel galaxy is still transforming following the past crash, and the new observations will help to better understand its past and future evolution.
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