New Images from James Webb Show Never Before Seen Details of The Cartwheel Galaxy

Yesterday, August 2nd, 2022, NASA revealed a beautiful new image from the James Webb Space Telescope. This image of The Cartwheel Galaxy shows it in amazing new detail thanks to Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam).

The Cartwheel Galaxy, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The Cartwheel Galaxy is a unique type of galaxy known as a ring galaxy. This galaxy type is much less common than other types. For example, the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, one of the most common types of larger galaxies.

As seen in the image above, the Cartwheel Galaxy consists of an outer ring and an inner ring. The bright core inside the inner ring contains a large amount of hot interstellar dust, making it the perfect home for young stars to form. The outer ring consists of many supernovas and more mature stars. It is thought that as this outer ring expands, it triggers new star formation to begin in the surrounding gas and dust.

Image of the Cartwheel Galaxy taken by Webb’s MIRI. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

During Webb’s observations of the Cartwheel Galaxy, it also took images using its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). This image allows Webb to see in infrared, allowing us to find features that may have been obscured by gas and dust. In the above…