See And Download The Webb Telescope’s Latest Images Of A Rare ‘Ring Galaxy’ In Jaw-Dropping 4K Detail

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This image of the Cartwheel and its companion galaxies is a composite from Webb’s Near-Infrared … [+] Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which reveals details that are difficult to see in the individual images alone.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

A rare “ring galaxy” has been captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. In the first official release of images since its debut collection in July this image (above) of the Cartwheel Galaxy has been made available in stunning 4K detail.

Available here as a 4685 x 4312 pixel, 20 megapixel image, it’s a composite of two images from the Webb telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). You can also explore a zoomable version online and see and download an annotated version.

It’s also available to download as an image from MIRI, which looks like this:

This image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) shows a group of galaxies, including a large … [+] distorted ring-shaped galaxy known as the Cartwheel. The Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation, is composed of a bright inner ring and an active outer ring. While this outer ring has a lot of star formation, the dusty area in between reveals many stars and star clusters. The mid-infrared light captured by MIRI reveals fine details about these dusty regions and young stars within the Cartwheel Galaxy, which are rich in hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds, as well as silicate dust, like much of the dust on Earth. Young stars, many of which are present in the bottom right of the outer ring, energise surrounding hydrocarbon dust, causing it to glow orange. On the other hand, the clearly defined dust between the core and the outer ring, which forms the “spokes” that inspire the galaxy’s name, is mostly silicate dust. The smaller spiral galaxy to the upper left of Cartwheel displays much of the same behaviour, showing a large amount of star formation. MIRI was contributed by ESA and NASA, with the instrument designed and built by a consortium of nationally funded European Institutes (the MIRI European Consortium) in partnership with JPL and the University of Arizona.

NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

This MIRI image is also available online as a zoomable version and as an annotated image.

What is the Cartwheel Galaxy?

About 500 million light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor—a small constellation in the southern hemisphere’s night sky—the Cartwheel Galaxy is known as both a lenticular galaxy and ring galaxy. It’s got a large disc, but no huge spiral arms like our own Milky Way (though you can still see what’s left of its spiral arms). It’s called a “ring” galaxy because it appears circular—and we get a face-on view.

About 100,000 light-years across, the Cartwheel Galaxy was formed after a smaller galaxy ripped through the middle of it, creating a shockwave and swirls of gas and dust that have gone on to produce new stars.

What can we see in the images?

Those blue swirls are stars and clusters of stars while the edge of the Cartwheel Galaxy is the extent of the shockwave caused when that small galaxy plunged through its center.

The red streaks in the composite image are caused by glowing, hydrocarbon-rich dust.

You can also see another similar-looking galaxy in the top-left of the image as well as two other galaxies in the background.

It’s the first time individual stars have been identified in the Cartwheel Galaxy.

For comparison, here’s the Hubble Space Telescope’s image of the Cartwheel galaxy, taken in 2010:

An image of the Cartwheel Galaxy taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been reprocessed … [+] using the latest techniques to mark the closure of the Space Telescope European Coordination Facility (ST-ECF), based near Munich in Germany, and to celebrate its achievements in supporting Hubble science in Europe over the past 26 years. Astronomer Bob Fosbury, who is stepping down as Head of the ST-ECF, was responsible for much of the early research into the Cartwheel Galaxy along with the late Tim Hawarden — including giving the object its very apposite name — and so this image was selected as a fitting tribute. The object was first spotted on wide-field images from the UK Schmidt telescope and then studied in detail using the Anglo-Australian Telescope.Lying about 500 million light-years away in the constellation of Sculptor, the cartwheel shape of this galaxy is the result of a violent galactic collision. A smaller galaxy has passed right through a large disc galaxy and produced shock waves that swept up gas and dust — much like the ripples produced when a stone is dropped into a lake — and sparked regions of intense star formation (appearing blue). The outermost ring of the galaxy, which is 1.5 times the size of our Milky Way, marks the shock wave’s leading edge. This object is one of the most dramatic examples of the small class of ring galaxies.This image was produced after Hubble data was reprocessed using the free open source software FITS Liberator 3, which was developed at the ST-ECF. Careful use of this widely used state-of-the-art tool on the original Hubble observations of the Cartwheel Galaxy has brought out more detail in the image than ever before. Although the ST-ECF is closing, ESA’s mission to bring amazing Hubble discoveries to the public will be unaffected, with Hubblecasts, press and photo releases, and Hubble Pictures of the Week continuing to be regularly posted on spacetelescope.org. Links Space Telescope European Coordination

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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