Barred spiral galaxies

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Lee (STScI), T. Williams (Oxford), PHANGS TeamShall I compare thee to the Webb Space Telescope’s latest image drop? Well, for starters, thou art less ancient and far less spectacular. The new collection of 19 images reveal face-on spiral galaxies, meaning they are oriented toward Webb’s perceptive gaze. The shots were taken as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, which is collecting data on 74 spiral galaxies.To us, the galaxies may simply…

The Webb Space Telescope is on a tear, imaging regions of star formation across the cosmos. Its latest target? The barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068—a bedazzled conglomeration of gas and stars 17 million light-years from Earth.Webb Telescope Images the Pillars of CreationLaunched in December 2021, Webb has been making scientific observations since July 2022. It’s uniquely capable of seeing some of the oldest, most distant light, which it does at infrared wavelengths. Taking data on this ancient light clues astronomers into…

The Webb Space Telescope has spotted six pinpricks of reddish-orange light that scientists say are actually galaxies as mature as the Milky Way—despite being billions of years younger.The galaxies are seen as they looked about 500 million to 800 million years after the Big Bang, over 13 billion years ago. The presence of galaxies so early in the universe is not surprising, but the degree to which the galaxies are developed is throwing astronomers for a loop. Analysis of the image data is published today in Nature.“These…

Analysis of Stephan’s Quintet, a vivid set of galaxies in the distant universe, by two telescopes has revealed details of how the galaxies (and the hydrogen gas within them) interact.One of the galaxies in the quintet is rapidly intruding on the others’ personal space, producing a shockwave in the region traveling at about 500 miles per second. A recent research team found clouds colliding, a system with a tail, and a possible dwarf galaxy being formed.The galaxies were observed by two large observatories—one on land and…

The Andromeda Galaxy captured by the NASA Galaxy Evolution Mapper in 2012.Image: NASA/JPL-CaltechIn the quest to find the outer limits of our galaxy, astronomers have discovered over 200 stars that form the Milky Way’s edge, the most distant of which is over one million light-years away—nearly halfway to the Andromeda galaxy.The 208 stars the researchers identified are known as RR Lyrae stars, which are stars with a brightness that can change as viewed from Earth. These stars are typically old and brighten and dim at…

The Webb Space Telescope’s latest target is one previously imaged by Hubble: the distant barred spiral galaxy EGS23205. Targets like this one will boost our understanding of the early universe and how ancient stars and galaxies took form.The two images above show EGS23205 as seen by Hubble and Webb. Hubble’s image of the galaxy (taken in near-infrared) is much noisier, and the structure of the galaxy is harder to discern. But Webb’s image (at mid-infrared wavelengths) is much crisper, revealing a clear bar of stars…

Webb’s latest image release is a special collab with the Hubble Space Telescope. Scientists combined data from the two observatories to produce these spectacular shots of the spiral Phantom Galaxy (also known as Messier 74), about 32 million light-years from Earth.The images capture gas clouds, dust, and star-forming regions in the galaxy in sharp relief. You can even view the distant cosmos beyond the galaxy’s rust-red arms, as seen in optical and mid-infrared lightAccording to the Guardian, Messier 74 is nicknamed the…