The James Webb Space Telescope has taken stunning images of the spiral galaxy NGC 628 (Messier 74), which is located more than 1.5 million km from Earth in the constellation Pisces. Because of the strong glow, some astronomers call this object a “ghost galaxy.”
The image shown was taken with a MIRI camera in the near infrared range. The Messier 74 is also often referred to as the “perfect spiral” for its symmetry. From a scientific point of view, the galaxy is interesting for the black hole of medium mass, which, according to scientists, is located in its center.
In the past, Messier 74 has repeatedly hit the lenses of scientific instruments of various spacecraft, including the Hubble telescope and the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) orbital system. A distinctive feature of the new images is that they were made in the mid-infrared range, which became possible due to the presence of a unique 18-segment mirror in the James Webb design and the location of the observatory at a considerable distance from the Earth. The most powerful space telescope ever observed the galaxy Messier 74 this week, according to available data.
Recall that on July 12, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) published first color image from the James Webb, and made more publicly available later that day some amazing pictures various space objects. Already on July 14, the telescope made image of Jupiter with its rings and three satellites. In just a few days of work, James Webb has shown itself to be a flexible and powerful tool for observing space objects located at a considerable distance from our planet.
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