New photos from the James Webb Space Telescope shows a stunning galaxy shaped like a cartwheel.
The James Webb Space Telescope has once again wowed scientists and regular folks alike when it peered through dust and gas into regions that are beyond the reach of the Hubble telescope to snap a photo of a rare wheel-shaped galaxy. Named after an old fashioned carriage due to its shape, the Cartwheel Galaxy has previously been studied by the Hubble Space Telescope, but only the James Webb Space Telescope was able to capture new, unseen details in the structure of the fascinating galaxy.
According to Space.com, it is the infrared light that allows the James Webb Space Telescope to see through regions of space that are undetectable by other optical telescopes such as Hubble. Infrared light is made up of heat that penetrates dust clouds to see details that could not be seen before.
What Did the James Webb Space Telescope Find?
The James Webb Space Telescope utilizes the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to see individual stars in the star-forming regions in the outer ring of the Cartwheel Galaxy. The groundbreaking new telescope also found clusters of very young stars around the huge black hole at the center, which is covered in dust.
The James Webb Space Telescope also found two smaller companion galaxies near the Cartwheel Galaxy, which is located about 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation. Its rare appearance is shaped like a wheel of a wagon and resulted from an intense, high-speed collision between two galaxies of different sizes, which affected its shape and structure.
Cartwheel Galaxy Characterized by Two Rings
The Cartwheel Galaxy features two distinct rings, a bright inner ring that is smaller and a larger outer ring that is colorful. From the center of the collision, these two rings expand outwards like "ripples in a pond after a stone is tossed into it," scientists at the Webb Space Telescope said in its description. These distinctive features gives the Cartwheel Galaxy a "ring galaxy" type of structure that is less common than other spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way.
Inside the Cartwheel Galaxy scientists found a bright core that contains vast amounts of hot dust, with its brightest areas containing large clusters of young stars. Scientists said that the outer ring had expanded for about 440 million years and continues to be dominated by star formation and supernova. The expansion of the ring sparks a star formation as it plows into the gas around it.
Observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope shows that the galaxy contains areas filled with hydrocarbons and silicate dust that together form spokes that visible connects the inner and outer rings of the galaxy. Previously, the Hubble detected these spokes, but not as clear as the Webb telescope could.
Scientists using the James Webb Space Telescope to observe the Cartwheel Galaxy believe that it is in a very transitory stage. It was presumed to be a normal spiral galaxy but will continue to transform now and in the future.
