A new series of images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope has revealed remarkable details of 19 spiral galaxies located relatively close to the Milky Way, providing new clues about star formation, as well as the structure and evolution of the galaxy, Reuters reported.
The nearest of the 19 galaxies is called NGC5068, which is about 15 million light years away from Earth. While the farthest galaxy is NGC1365, which is about 60 million light years away. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, or 9.5 trillion kilometers.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1512, located 30 million light years from Earth
The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) launched in 2021 and began collecting data in 2022. The resulting images have helped reshape our understanding of the early universe and captured some amazing images of the cosmos.
Among galaxies, the most common type is the spiral galaxy, which resembles giant pinwheels. Our Milky Way is one such galaxy, but it is unique in that it contains the sun.
The new images were captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Medium Infrared Imager (MIRI) instruments. The data reveal about 100,000 star clusters and millions or perhaps billions of individual stars in the Milky Way.
Spiral galaxy NGC 628, located 32 million light years from Earth
"These data are important because they give us new insight into the earliest stages of star formation," said astronomer Thomas Williams of the University of Oxford, who led the team that processed the data on the images.
These images also allow scientists to understand for the first time in great detail the structure of the clouds of dust and gas from which stars and planets form in galaxies.
"These images are not only aesthetically impressive, but also tell a story about the cycle of star formation and feedback, which is the energy and momentum released by young stars into interstellar space," said astronomer Janice Lee of the Space Telescope Science Institute (USA).
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