These images are out of this world.
New snaps of outer space released on Monday show the “mind-blowing” detail of 19 spiral galaxies near our Milky Way that were captured by the James Webb Space Telescope thanks to the work of more than 150 astronomers across the globe.
The images of the spiral galaxies, similar to giant, bright pinwheels, offered a deeper guide into star formations, as well as galactic structure and evolution.
“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, said in a statement. “They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades.
“Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”
Images of 19 spiral galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been released. via REUTERS
The galaxies are all relatively close to the Milky Way with the closest being 15 million light years from Earth. via REUTERSLee and other scientists that are part of the project called PHANGS, or Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS, used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which showed about 100,000 star clusters and millions or maybe even billions of individual stars.
The nearest galaxy photographed is about 15 million light years away from Earth while the furthest is about 60 million light years from Earth.
The James Webb Space Telescope, building off the progress of the older Hubble Space Telescope, kicked off in 2021 and started scooping up data the following year.
The observations come from Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument. via REUTERS
An image of galaxy NGC 2835, located 35 million light years from Earth. via REUTERSThe new images allowed researchers for the first time to sort out the structure of the clouds of dust and gas that shape stars and planets at a high level of detail in galaxies beyond the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud – a pair of galactic satellites of the Milky Way.
“The images are not only aesthetically stunning, they also tell a story about the cycle of star formation and feedback, which is the energy and momentum released by young stars into the space between stars,” Lee said.
Galaxy NGC 1512 is 30 million light-years away from Earth. via REUTERS“It actually looks like there was explosive activity and clearing of the dust and gas on both cluster and kiloparsec (roughly 3,000 light years) scales,” Lee added.
“The dynamic process of the overall star formation cycle becomes obvious and qualitatively accessible, even for the public, which makes the images compelling on many different levels.”
With Post wires
