These images are out of this world.
A new space image released on Monday shows the details of 19 “dazzling” spiral galaxies near our Milky Way captured by the James Webb Space Telescope thanks to the work of more than 150 astronomers around the world.
Images of spiral galaxies, similar to giant and bright pinwheels, offer a deeper guide to star formation, as well as galaxy structure and evolution.
“The new images of Webb are remarkable,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, in a statement. “It’s amazing even for researchers who have been studying the same galaxy for decades.
“Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell the story of the star formation cycle.”
Images of 19 spiral galaxies captured by the James Webb Space Telescope have been released. via REUTERS All of the galaxies are relatively close to the Milky Way with the closest distance being 15 million light years from Earth. via Reuters
Lee and other scientists who are part of a project called PHANGS, or Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS, used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), which showed about 100,000 star clusters and millions or perhaps even billions of individual stars.
The nearest galaxy photographed is about 15 million light-years from Earth while the farthest is about 60 million light-years from Earth.
The James Webb Space Telescope, building on the progress of the older Hubble Space Telescope, launches in 2021 and begins collecting data the following year.
The observations came from the Webb Near Infrared Camera and Mid-Infrared Instrument. via REUTERS Image of galaxy NGC 2835, located 35 million light-years from Earth. via REUTERS
The new images allow researchers for the first time to structure the star- and planet-forming dust and gas clouds in high detail in galaxies beyond the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds – a pair of galactic satellites of the Milky Way.
“The images are not only aesthetically stunning, they also tell the story of the cycle of star formation and feedback, which is the energy and momentum released by young stars into interstellar space,” Lee said.
Galaxy NGC 1512 is 30 million light years from Earth. via REUTERS
“It actually looks like there is explosive activity and clearing of dust and gas on both the cluster and kiloparsec scales (about 3,000 light years),” Lee added.
“The dynamic process of the entire star formation cycle becomes qualitatively clear and accessible, even for the public, which makes the image interesting on many different levels.”
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
