A large pink, speckled, pinwheel-like galaxy with a small, inner, dusty blue oval in the middle to the right, with two smaller spiral galaxies about the same size to the left against a black background
(NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)
There are probably hundreds of thousands of amusement parks spread all over the world. But we bet none of them have a Ferris wheel as fancy as the one NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope discovered 500 million light years away!
Popularly known as the Cartwheel Galaxy due to its uncanny resemblance to a cartwheel, this system is located in the constellation Sculptor.
Now, the illustrative JWST has captured the stunning chaos of the Galaxy Cartwheel. And we say chaos because the fascinating structure resulted from a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller one that is not visible in the image sent back by JWST.
The picture reveals new aspects of star formation and the galaxy’s central black hole.
Next, James Webb’s powerful infrared vision produced this detailed image of Cartwheel along with two smaller companion galaxies against a background of many other galaxies. Meaning, as beautiful as a photo is, it also gives us a new perspective on the galaxy’s historical events and possible future developments.
“The Cartwheel Galaxy has two rings—a bright inner ring and a surrounding, colorful ring. These two rings expand from the collision center, like ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown into it. Because of these distinctive features, astronomers at call this a ‘ring galaxy,’ a structure less common than spiral galaxies like our Milky Way,” NASA reported.
Massive clusters of young stars appear in the brightest regions of the core, which also includes a large amount of hot material. Meanwhile, star formation and supernovae dominate in the outer ring, which has been growing for nearly 440 million years. As it expands, this ring collides with the surrounding gas, resulting in star formation.
The Hubble Space Telescope, for all intents and purposes JWST’s predecessor, has already captured the Cartwheel Galaxy. However, the image was not that clear because of all the dust surrounding the galaxy. But Webb’s near-infrared camera (NIRCam) could see the entire nebula.
Webb’s observations indicate that the Cartwheel Galaxy is going through a transitional phase. The galaxy, which before the collision was probably a typical spiral galaxy like the Milky Way, will likely continue to change in the future.
SEE ALSO: NASA releases cosmic teaser, reveals one of the first images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope shares images of the “Phantom” Galaxy.
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