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NASA’s Webb Depicts Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

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NASA’s Webb Depicts Staggering Structure in 19 Nearby Spiral Galaxies

Nineteen Webb images of face-on spiral galaxies are combined in a mosaic. Some appear within squares, and others horizontal or vertical rectangles. Many galaxies have blue hazes toward the centers, and all have orange spiral arms. Many have clear bar shaped-structures at their centers, but a few have spirals that begin at their cores. Some of the galaxies’ arms form clear spiral shapes, while others are more irregular. Some of the galaxies’ arms appear to rotate clockwise and others counterclockwise. Most galaxy cores are centered, but a few appear toward an image’s edge. Most galaxies appear to extend beyond the captured observations. The galaxies shown, listed in alphabetical order, are IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1087, NGC1300, NGC 1365, NGC 1385, NGC 1433, NGC 1512, NGC 1566, NGC 1672, NGC 2835, NGC 3351, NGC 3627, NGC 4254, NGC 4303, NGC 4321, NGC 4535, NGC 5068, and NGC 7496.
Webb’s set of 19 PHANGS images of face-on spiral galaxies.
Credits:
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

It’s oh-so-easy to be absolutely mesmerized by these spiral galaxies. Follow their clearly defined arms, which are brimming with stars, to their centers, where there may be old star clusters and – sometimes – active supermassive black holes. Only NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light – and a set of these images was publicly released today.

Nineteen Webb images of face-on spiral galaxies are combined in a mosaic. Some appear within squares, and others horizontal or vertical rectangles. Many galaxies have blue hazes toward the centers, and all have orange spiral arms. Many have clear bar shaped-structures at their centers, but a few have spirals that begin at their cores. Some of the galaxies’ arms form clear spiral shapes, while others are more irregular. Some of the galaxies’ arms appear to rotate clockwise and others counterclockwise. Most galaxy cores are centered, but a few appear toward an image’s edge. Most galaxies appear to extend beyond the captured observations. The galaxies shown, listed in alphabetical order, are IC 5332, NGC 628, NGC 1087, NGC1300, NGC 1365, NGC 1385, NGC 1433, NGC 1512, NGC 1566, NGC 1672, NGC 2835, NGC 3351, NGC 3627, NGC 4254, NGC 4303, NGC 4321, NGC 4535, NGC 5068, and NGC 7496.
The James Webb Space Telescope observed 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light as part of its contributions to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program. PHANGS also includes images and data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, which included observations taken in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS Team, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

These Webb images are part of a large, long-standing project, the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers worldwide. Before Webb took these images, PHANGS was already brimming with data from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope’s Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, including observations in ultraviolet, visible, and radio light. Webb’s near- and mid-infrared contributions have provided several new puzzle pieces.

Two observations of a portion of the galaxy NGC 628 are split diagonally, with Webb’s observations at top left and Hubble’s at bottom right. The galaxy’s core is roughly centered and the galaxy’s arms appear to rotate counterclockwise. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. In Webb’s image, the spiny spiral arms are composed of many filaments in shades of orange, with prominent dark gray or black “bubbles,” and there is a blue haze near the core. In Hubble’s image, the spiral arms are a mix of bright blue star clusters, pink star forming areas and dark brown dust lanes, and the core is a pale yellow.
Face-on spiral galaxy, NGC 628, is split diagonally in this image: The James Webb Space Telescope’s observations appear at top left, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s on bottom right. Webb and Hubble’s images show a striking contrast, an inverse of darkness and light. Why? Webb’s observations combine near- and mid-infrared light and Hubble’s showcase visible light. Dust absorbs ultraviolet and visible light, and then re-emits it in the infrared. In Webb’s images, we see dust glowing in infrared light. In Hubble’s images, dark regions are where starlight is absorbed by dust.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team
hubble view of ngc628
Hubble’s image of NGC 628 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which has a light yellow haze that takes up about a quarter of the view. The core is brightest at the center, washing out light from other objects. Delicate spiral arms start near the center and extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise. There is more brown dust beginning at the center, but as the arms extend outward, brown dust lanes alternate with diffuse lines of bright blue stars. Throughout the spiral arms, there are bright pink patches of star-forming clusters.
NASA, STScI
Webb’s image of NGC 628 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which has a light blue haze that takes up about a quarter of the view. In this circular core is the brightest blue area. Within the core are populations of older stars, represented by many pinpoints of blue light. Spiny spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust also start at the center, largely starting in the wider area of the blue haze. The spiral arms extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. The arms of the galaxy are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. Scattered across the packed scene are some additional bright blue pinpoints of light, which are stars spread throughout the galaxy. In areas where there is less orange, it is darker, and some dark regions look more circular. A prominent dark “bubble” appears to the top left of the blue core. And a wider, elliptical “bubble” to the bottom right.
Spiral galaxy NGC 628 is 32 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. Webb’s image of NGC 628 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which has a light blue haze that takes up about a quarter of the view. In this circular core is the brightest blue area. Within the core are populations of older stars, represented by many pinpoints of blue light. Spiny spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust also start at the center, largely starting in the wider area of the blue haze. The spiral arms extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise. The spiraling filamentary structure looks somewhat like a cross section of a nautilus shell. The arms of the galaxy are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. Scattered across the packed scene are some additional bright blue pinpoints of light, which are stars spread throughout the galaxy. In areas where there is less orange, it is darker, and some dark regions look more circular. A prominent dark “bubble” appears to the top left of the blue core. And a wider, elliptical “bubble” to the bottom right.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

“Webb’s new images are extraordinary,” said Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. “They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”

Excitement rapidly spread throughout the team as the Webb images flooded in. “I feel like our team lives in a constant state of being overwhelmed – in a positive way – by the amount of detail in these images,” added Thomas Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Webb’s image of NGC 1300 shows a face-on barred spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which is circular and shows a bright white point at the center with a light yellow circle around it. The central core is tiny compared to the rest of the galaxy. The core extends into the galaxy’s prominent diagonal bar structure, which is filled with a blue haze of stars. Orange dust filaments cross the bar, extending diagonally to the top and bottom, connecting the yellow circle in the central core to the galaxy’s spiral arms. There are two distinct orange spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust that start at the edges of the bar and rotate counterclockwise. Together, the arm and bars form a backward S shape. The spiral arms are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. Scattered across the packed scene are very few bright blue pinpoints of light. There are vast areas between where the orange spiral arms wrap that appear black. The top left and bottom right edges are dark black and there are some larger red and blue points of light, some that appear like disks seen from the side.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1300 is 69 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team
Webb’s image of NGC 1087 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which takes the shape of a short light yellow line that is about a fifth of the length of the galaxy. Filamentary spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust start at the center and extend to the top and bottom edges, rotating clockwise. There is so much light in this region that the spiral arms of the galaxy look muddled. They are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. Scattered across the packed scene are some bright blue pinpoints of light, but they appear more clearly in areas where it is dark gray or black. Several smaller “bubbles” where it’s black appears throughout the galaxy. The edges of the scene are dark black and there are some larger bright blue points of light, along with a few pink shapes, likely background galaxies.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1087 is 80 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

Follow the Spiral Arms

Webb’s NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) captured millions of stars in these images, which sparkle in blue tones. Some stars are spread throughout the spiral arms, but others are clumped tightly together in star clusters.

The telescope’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) data highlights glowing dust, showing us where it exists around and between stars. It also spotlights stars that haven’t yet fully formed – they are still encased in the gas and dust that feed their growth, like bright red seeds at the tips of dusty peaks. “These are where we can find the newest, most massive stars in the galaxies,” said Erik Rosolowsky, a professor of physics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada.

Webb’s image of the galaxy NGC 1566 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its slightly oval central region, consisting of a core and small bar structure, which has a light blue haze of stars that covers about a quarter of the view. Two prominent spiny spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust also start at the center, within the blue haze, and extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise. The spiral arms of the galaxy are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. The brightest areas of the arms are two large arcs that start at the central region and stretch up to the top and bottom. Scattered across the packed scene are innumerable bright blue pinpoints of light, which are stars spread throughout the galaxy. In areas where there is less orange, it is darker, and some dark regions look more circular. There are bright pink patches of light toward the outer regions of the spiral arms.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1566 is 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

Something else that amazed astronomers? Webb’s images show large, spherical shells in the gas and dust. “These holes may have been created by one or more stars that exploded, carving out giant holes in the interstellar material,” explained Adam Leroy, a professor of astronomy at the Ohio State University in Columbus.

Now, trace the spiral arms to find extended regions of gas that appear red and orange. “These structures tend to follow the same pattern in certain parts of the galaxies,” Rosolowsky added. “We think of these like waves, and their spacing tells us a lot about how a galaxy distributes its gas and dust.” Study of these structures will provide key insights about how galaxies build, maintain, and shut off star formation.

Webb’s image of NGC 2835 shows a densely populated face-on spiral galaxy anchored by its small central region, which is immediately engulfed in the orange spiral arms. A blue glow of stars begins at the core and spreads outward. Spiny orange spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust start at the center and extend to the edges, rotating counterclockwise and taking up most of the area. Tiny pinpoints of blue light, which are stars or star clusters, are scattered across the image, but are easiest to spot where there appear to be black bubbles within the orange dust. The spiral arms of the galaxy are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange. In a few areas, there are bright orange patches of light within the orange spiral arms, mainly toward the outer edges of the spiral arms. Toward the bottom are some larger pink and blue points of light, some are likely background galaxies that appear like disks seen from the side.
Spiral galaxy NGC 2835 is 35 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

Dive Into the Interior

Evidence shows that galaxies grow from inside out – star formation begins at galaxies’ cores and spreads along their arms, spiraling away from the center. The farther a star is from the galaxy’s core, the more likely it is to be younger. In contrast, the areas near the cores that look lit by a blue spotlight are populations of older stars.

What about galaxy cores that are awash in pink-and-red diffraction spikes? “That’s a clear sign that there may be an active supermassive black hole,” said Eva Schinnerer, a staff scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany. “Or, the star clusters toward the center are so bright that they have saturated that area of the image.”

Webb’s image of NGC 1512 shows a face-on barred spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which is circular and shows a bright white point at the center with blue and yellow circles around it. Outside the core is a large bar structure filled with a haze of blue stars, forming a rough parallelogram shape and taking up about a quarter of the area. The bar is crossed by orange filaments made of stars, gas, and dust that extend diagonally to the top left and bottom right. Outside this, the thick orange spiral arms form a rough oval, and within them there are smaller oval areas that appear black. The spiral arms are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange and extend beyond the edges of the image. There are many larger blue stars and slightly larger pink points of light spread throughout. Two larger foreground stars with at least six diffraction spikes are at top center and bottom center.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1512 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Horologium.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team
Webb’s image of NGC 1385 shows a messy face-on spiral galaxy in shades of white, yellow, orange, and red. There’s a bright yellow arc-shaped region toward the center, but it is very difficult to see a spiral shape. Scattered across the scene are some bright blue pinpoints of light, but they appear more clearly in areas where it is dark gray or black, below and to the right of the yellow central arc in blobs, with some individual blue points of light across the image. There are many bright red or orange regions in the orange arms, speckled irregularly throughout. The edges of the scene are dark black, containing several very faint pink, blue, and red blobs.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1385 is 30 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

Research Galore

There are many avenues of research that scientists can begin to pursue with the combined PHANGS data, but the unprecedented number of stars Webb resolved are a great place to begin. “Stars can live for billions or trillions of years,” Leroy said. “By precisely cataloging all types of stars, we can build a more reliable, holistic view of their life cycles.”

In addition to immediately releasing these images, the PHANGS team has also released the largest catalog to date of roughly 100,000 star clusters. “The amount of analysis that can be done with these images is vastly larger than anything our team could possibly handle,” Rosolowsky emphasized. “We’re excited to support the community so all researchers can contribute.”

Webb’s image of the galaxy NGC 1672 shows a portion of a face-on barred spiral galaxy anchored by its central region, which is circular and has a bright white point at the center with blue and then yellow circular regions around it, anchored to the right of center. A roughly horizontal bar structure made of a blue haze of stars and filamentary orange dust lanes tilts up slightly and takes up the majority of the image. Two spiny orange spiral arms made of stars, gas, and dust connect to the end of the bar and extend outward, rotating clockwise. The spiral arms are largely orange, ranging from dark to bright orange and extend beyond the edges of the image. They are brightest orange away from the bright central region at left and right, like knots of orange beads strung together. The spiral shape of the galaxy is less apparent in this view, with the arms looking more like irregular waves in an ocean’s tides. There are many more dark or black regions between where the orange gas and dust of the bar and spiral arms appear. Scattered across the scene are some bright blue pinpoints of light.
Spiral galaxy NGC 1672 is 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team
Webb Telescopes view face-on of spiral galaxy NGC 4254.
Webb Telescopes view face-on of spiral galaxy NGC 4254.
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), and the PHANGS team

See the full set of 19 images from both Webb and Hubble and download them at full resolution.

The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Canadian Space Agency.

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Right click the images in this article to open a larger version in a new tab/window.

Download full resolution images for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.

Access These Images on the MAST Archive

Media Contacts

Laura Betz/NASA – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro/NASA– rob.gutro@nasa.gov
NASA’s  Goddard Space Flight Center, , Greenbelt, Md.

Claire Blome – cblome@stsci.edu, Christine Pulliam/STScI – cpulliam@stsci.edu
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Related Information

Galaxy Types

Galaxy Evolution

Infrared Astronomy

Related Article: NASA’s Webb Reveals Intricate Networks of Gas and Dust in Nearby Galaxies

PHANGS Website for Researchers

Access These Images on the MAST Archive

More Webb News – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/latestnews/

More Webb Images – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/multimedia/images/

Webb Mission Page – https://science.nasa.gov/mission/webb/

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      “In the past, we knew about these star forming regions but were not able to delve into their properties,” said Natsuko Izumi of Gifu University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, lead author of the study. “The Webb data builds upon what we have incrementally gathered over the years from prior observations with different telescopes and observatories. We can get very powerful and impressive images of these clouds with Webb. In the case of Digel Cloud 2, I did not expect to see such active star formation and spectacular jets.”
      Image A: Extreme Outer Galaxy (NIRCam and MIRI)
      Scientists used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to examine select star-forming areas in the Extreme Outer Galaxy in near- and mid-infrared light. Within this star-forming region, known as Digel Cloud 2S, the telescope observed young, newly formed stars and their extended jets of material. This Webb image also shows a dense sea of background galaxies and red nebulous structures within the region. In this image, colors were assigned to different filters from Webb’s MIRI and NIRCam: red (F1280W, F770W, F444W), green (F356W, F200W), and blue (F150W; F115W). NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, M. Ressler (JPL) Stars in the Making
      Although the Digel Clouds are within our galaxy, they are relatively poor in elements heavier than hydrogen and helium. This composition makes them similar to dwarf galaxies and our own Milky Way in its early history. Therefore, the team took the opportunity to use Webb to capture the activity occurring in four clusters of young stars within Digel Clouds 1 and 2: 1A, 1B, 2N, and 2S.
      For Cloud 2S, Webb captured the main cluster containing young, newly formed stars. This dense area is quite active as several stars are emitting extended jets of material along their poles. Additionally, while scientists previously suspected a sub-cluster might be present within the cloud, Webb’s imaging capabilities confirmed its existence for the first time. 
      “We know from studying other nearby star-forming regions that as stars form during their early life phase, they start emitting jets of material at their poles,” said Ressler, second author of the study and principal investigator of the observing program. “What was fascinating and astounding to me from the Webb data is that there are multiple jets shooting out in all different directions from this cluster of stars. It’s a little bit like a firecracker, where you see things shooting this way and that.”
      The Saga of Stars
      The Webb imagery skims the surface of the Extreme Outer Galaxy and the Digel Clouds, and is just a starting point for the team. They intend to revisit this outpost in the Milky Way to find answers to a variety of current mysteries, including the relative abundance of stars of various masses within Extreme Outer Galaxy star clusters. This measurement can help astronomers understand how a particular environment can influence different types of stars during their formation.
      “I’m interested in continuing to study how star formation is occurring in these regions. By combining data from different observatories and telescopes, we can examine each stage in the evolution process,” said Izumi. “We also plan to investigate circumstellar disks within the Extreme Outer Galaxy. We still don’t know why their lifetimes are shorter than in star-forming regions much closer to us. And of course, I’d like to understand the kinematics of the jets we detected in Cloud 2S.”
      Though the story of star formation is complex and some chapters are still shrouded in mystery, Webb is gathering clues and helping astronomers unravel this intricate tale.
      These findings have been published in the Astronomical Journal.
      The observations were taken as part of Guaranteed Time Observation program 1237.
      The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
      Downloads
      Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu.
      View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
      View/Download the research results from the Astronomical Journal.
      Media Contacts
      Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu, Abigail Major – amajor@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
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      Details
      Last Updated Sep 11, 2024 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
      Astrophysics Goddard Space Flight Center James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Protostars Science & Research Star Clusters Star-forming Nebulae Stars The Milky Way The Universe View the full article
    • European Space Agency
      Webb peers into the Extreme Outer Galaxy
      By European Space Agency
      Image: Digel Cloud 2S View the full article
    • NASA
      NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
      By NASA
      5 Min Read NASA’s Webb Reveals Distorted Galaxy Forming Cosmic Question Mark
      The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154. Full image below. Credits:
      NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University). It’s 7 billion years ago, and the universe’s heyday of star formation is beginning to slow. What might our Milky Way galaxy have looked like at that time? Astronomers using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have found clues in the form of a cosmic question mark, the result of a rare alignment across light-years of space.
      “We know of only three or four occurrences of similar gravitational lens configurations in the observable universe, which makes this find exciting, as it demonstrates the power of Webb and suggests maybe now we will find more of these,” said astronomer Guillaume Desprez of Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a member of the team presenting the Webb results.
      Image A: Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
      The galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154 is so massive it is warping the fabric of space-time and distorting the appearance of galaxies behind it, an effect known as gravitational lensing. This natural phenomenon magnifies distant galaxies and can also make them appear in an image multiple times, as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope saw here. Two distant, interacting galaxies — a face-on spiral and a dusty red galaxy seen from the side — appear multiple times, tracing a familiar shape across the sky. Active star formation, and the face-on galaxy’s remarkably intact spiral shape, indicate that these galaxies’ interaction is just beginning. NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, V. Estrada-Carpenter (Saint Mary’s University). While this region has been observed previously with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the dusty red galaxy that forms the intriguing question-mark shape only came into view with Webb. This is a result of the wavelengths of light that Hubble detects getting trapped in cosmic dust, while longer wavelengths of infrared light are able to pass through and be detected by Webb’s instruments.
      Astronomers used both telescopes to observe the galaxy cluster MACS-J0417.5-1154, which acts like a magnifying glass because the cluster is so massive it warps the fabric of space-time. This allows astronomers to see enhanced detail in much more distant galaxies behind the cluster. However, the same gravitational effects that magnify the galaxies also cause distortion, resulting in galaxies that appear smeared across the sky in arcs and even appear multiple times. These optical illusions in space are called gravitational lensing.
      The red galaxy revealed by Webb, along with a spiral galaxy it is interacting with that was previously detected by Hubble, are being magnified and distorted in an unusual way, which requires a particular, rare alignment between the distant galaxies, the lens, and the observer — something astronomers call a hyperbolic umbilic gravitational lens. This accounts for the five images of the galaxy pair seen in Webb’s image, four of which trace the top of the question mark. The dot of the question mark is an unrelated galaxy that happens to be in the right place and space-time, from our perspective.
      Image B: Hubble and Webb Side by Side
      Image Before/After In addition to producing a case study of the Webb NIRISS (Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph) instrument’s ability to detect star formation locations within a galaxy billions of light-years away, the research team also couldn’t resist highlighting the question mark shape. “This is just cool looking. Amazing images like this are why I got into astronomy when I was young,” said astronomer Marcin Sawicki of Saint Mary’s University, one of the lead researchers on the team. 
      “Knowing when, where, and how star formation occurs within galaxies is crucial to understanding how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe,” said astronomer Vicente Estrada-Carpenter of Saint Mary’s University, who used both Hubble’s ultraviolet and Webb’s infrared data to show where new stars are forming in the galaxies. The results show that star formation is widespread in both. The spectral data also confirmed that the newfound dusty galaxy is located at the same distance as the face-on spiral galaxy, and they are likely beginning to interact.
      “Both galaxies in the Question Mark Pair show active star formation in several compact regions, likely a result of gas from the two galaxies colliding,” said Estrada-Carpenter. “However, neither galaxy’s shape appears too disrupted, so we are probably seeing the beginning of their interaction with each other.”
      “These galaxies, seen billions of years ago when star formation was at its peak, are similar to the mass that the Milky Way galaxy would have been at that time. Webb is allowing us to study what the teenage years of our own galaxy would have been like,” said Sawicki.
      The Webb images and spectra in this research came from the Canadian NIRISS Unbiased Cluster Survey (CANUCS). The research paper is published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
      Image C: Wide Field – Lensed Question Mark (NIRCam)
      The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
      Downloads
      Right click any image to save it or open a larger version in a new tab/window via the browser’s popup menu.
      View/Download all image products at all resolutions for this article from the Space Telescope Science Institute.
      View/Download the research results from the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
      Media Contacts
      Laura Betz – laura.e.betz@nasa.gov, Rob Gutro – rob.gutro@nasa.gov
      NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
      Christine Pulliam – cpulliam@stsci.edu , Leah Ramsey – lramsey@stsci.edu
      Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
      Related Information
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      En Español
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      James Webb Space Telescope


      Webb is the premier observatory of the next decade, serving thousands of astronomers worldwide. It studies every phase in the…


      Galaxies



      Galaxies Stories



      Universe


      Share








      Details
      Last Updated Sep 04, 2024 Editor Stephen Sabia Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Related Terms
      Astrophysics Galaxies Galaxies, Stars, & Black Holes Galaxy clusters Goddard Space Flight Center Gravitational Lensing James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Science & Research The Universe View the full article

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