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A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The bright tendrils of gas and stars belong to the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, whose bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image. NGC 5068 lies around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
This portrait of NGC 5068 is part of a campaign to create an astronomical treasure trove, a repository of observations of star formation in nearby galaxies. Previous gems from this collection can be seen here and here. These observations are particularly valuable to astronomers for two reasons. The first is because star formation underpins so many fields in astronomy, from the physics of the tenuous plasma that lies between stars to the evolution of entire galaxies. By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb.
The second reason is that Webb’s observations build on other studies using telescopes including the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and some of the world’s most capable ground-based observatories. Webb collected images of 19 nearby star-forming galaxies which astronomers could then combine with catalogues from Hubble of 10 000 star clusters, spectroscopic mapping of 20 000 star-forming emission nebulae from the Very Large Telescope (VLT), and observations of 12 000 dark, dense molecular clouds identified by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). These observations span the electromagnetic spectrum and give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation.
With its ability to peer through the gas and dust enshrouding newborn stars, Webb is the perfect telescope to explore the processes governing star formation. Stars and planetary systems are born amongst swirling clouds of gas and dust that are opaque to observations in visible light, like many from Hubble or the VLT. The keen vision at infrared wavelengths of two of Webb’s instruments — MIRI and NIRCam — allowed astronomers to see right through the gargantuan clouds of dust in NGC 5068 and capture the processes of star formation as they happened. This image combines the capabilities of these two instruments, providing a truly unique look at the composition of NGC 5068.
More: esawebb.org/images/potm2305a/
Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team
Image description: Webb’s composite image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068, showing its core and part of a spiral arm. Clumps and filaments of dust, represented in a mossy green color, form an almost skeletal structure that follow the twist of the galaxy and its spiral arm. Thousands upon thousands of packed, tiny stars that make it up can be seen, most dense in a whitish bar in the top left quadrant, which is the region that forms its core. Large, glowing bubbles of gas, represented in red, are hidden in the dust. The background is a dark forest green.
Tags: JWST James Webb Space Telescope NASA ESA Galaxy NGC 5068 Star Dust Gas
The seven galaxies spotlighted (on the right) form a protocluster so far away, its light took about 13 billion years to reach us. Webb scientists predict it may grow into one of the largest, densest galaxy clusters known.
Webb's NIRSpec instrument was able to confirm the seven galaxies' distance and even measure their velocities, confirming that they are moving within a halo of dark matter at more than 2 million miles per hour. The precise data also allowed astronomers to model and map the protocluster's future development.
Why do we care about galaxy clusters? Their massive gravitational pull warps time and space, distorting but also brightening objects behind them. This makes them great “magnifying glasses” for distant, background galaxies. In fact, we found this protocluster with the help of Pandora’s Cluster, another galaxy cluster!
Learn more: go.nasa.gov/3oFm4Fj
Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, T. Morishita (IPAC), with image processing by A. Pagan (STScI)
Image description: The left side of this image features various galaxies colored orange, red and white on a black background. Most of the white galaxies have a hazy halo. A prominent, glowing group of larger white galaxies appears below center. In the top half, five small white squares highlight very faint and tiny red galaxies that would not stand out otherwise, with lines radiating from the small squares to a stacked column of five squares on the right side of the image. This column provides a zoomed-in view of seven specific galaxies, all appearing as red smudges or dots. The top square shows two galaxies labeled ZD6 and ZD3. The next square down shows a galaxy labeled ZD2. The third square down shows one galaxy labeled GlassZ8-2. The fourth square down shows two galaxies labeled YD4 and YD7. Finally, the bottom square shows one galaxy labeled YD8.
Tags: jwst webb james space telescope galaxy cluster protocluster Pandora's Cluster Abell 2744