the space telescope James Webb has traversed time and vast amounts of dust to capture a new image of the Cartwheel Galaxy with unprecedented clarity, as reported Tuesday by the NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA).
Located about 500 million light-years from Earth, in the Sculptor constellation, the Cartwheel took its shape after a head-on collision between two galaxies.
The impact caused two rings to spread out from the center of the galaxy, “like ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown into it,” they explained. NASA and ESA in a joint statement.
At the center of the galaxy is a smaller white ring, while the outer ring, with its colored spokes, has been expanding in the universe for about 440 million years, the statement added. As the outside expands, it collides with gas, causing new stars to form.
The Hubble telescope has already captured images of this strange ring galaxy, which is thought to have been a spiral like the Milky Way before a smaller galaxy hit it.
But the Webb telescope, which launched in December 2021, has a longer range to get the pictures.
Webb’s ability to detect infrared light allowed him to see through the “huge amount of hot dust” that obscured the view of the Cartwheel Galaxy, the report said. NASA and the ESA.
This revealed new details about star formation in the galaxy, as well as the behavior of the supermassive black hole at its heart, they said.
It was also able to detect regions rich in hydrocarbons and other chemicals as an Earth-like dust.
Behind the Cartwheel, two other smaller galaxies shine, and beyond these, even more structures can be seen.
Studies from the image show that the Cartwheel Galaxy is still in a “very transient phase,” according to space agencies.
“Webb gives us a snapshot of the current state of the Cartwheel and also provides insight into what has happened to this galaxy in the past and how it will evolve in the future.”