Stunning pictures taken James Webb Space Telescope Giving us the clearest look yet of the Wheel Galaxy.
NASA released this image of a distant galaxy on Tuesday — named for its resemblance to a wagon wheel. The wheel galaxy is located in the constellation Sculptor about 500 million light-years away, the agency said in a report. Press release.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
This image shows two “smaller companion galaxies next to the Wheel galaxy, with many other galaxies in the background.” NASA said the image shows the Wheel galaxy having a bright inner ring and a surrounding colored ring, which is The result of a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy.
According to NASA, the right inner ring of the Milky Way contains a lot of hot dust, and the brightest region has huge clusters of young stars. For about 440 million years, the outer ring has been expanding from the collision center. Stars are formed when it expands and hits the surrounding gas.
NASA said that the rings of the Wheel galaxy, which extend outward from the collision center, are classified as “ring galaxies” and are more rare than spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way.
Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
NASA tried to get a clear view of the elusive galaxy, including using the Hubble Space Telescope, but was unable to do so due to a large amount of dust obscuring the view. However, the Advanced Webb Space Telescope, whose near-infrared camera (NIRCam) can detect infrared light, has clearly captured young stars forming in the outer ring of the Milky Way.
The image also provides insight into what happened in the Wheel Galaxy in the past and how it might evolve in the future. NASA said the galaxy, which “may have been a normal galaxy like the Milky Way before the collision,” is in a transitional phase and will continue to transform.
