Like a hypnotizing colossal jellyfish, the Cartwheel galaxy has been captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. The POT has released an impressive new image of the celestial body, which is about 500 million light years away from Earth.
The Hubble Space Telescope had earlier images of the Cartwheel Galaxy, but the new James Webb photos make things clearer. Now, we know that the galaxy is much more impressive than previously thought. According to NASA, the Cartwheel galaxy is large enough to be classified as a major galaxy, with a diameter larger than that of our Milky Waybut smaller than Andromeda.
Scientists revealed that Cartwheel is the result of the fusion of two giant discs and the structure of their nuclei. Both closely connected to each other. They say the merger was a high-intensity event that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, when a larger and a smaller spiral galaxy collided at high speed. Thus, they gave birth to this enormous lenticular formation.
The Cartwheel galaxy is made up of two rings. The internal one being the brightest, and the external one offering a greater range of colors, and which has been expanding for about 440 million years. Together, they offer a vision so impressive that it becomes one of the most amazing images captured by the James Webb.
How to interpret this image captured by the James Webb
The NIRCam is one of the instruments that the James Webb equips. This tool allows the telescope to work in the near infrared range of the electromagnetic spectrum. What does all this technicality mean? Basically, what is able to see beyond visible light. Thanks to this, it has been able to reveal more stars than were initially known.
The picture shows that many stars are forming in the outer ring of the galaxy. A view that, until now, had not been captured in such detail due to the presence of dust, a material that obscured much of these features.
James Webb’s NIRCam instrument has also been able to reveal data such as the chemical composition of stars in formation. Likewise, we have a distribution and population of oldest stars in the core of the galaxy. The youngest, meanwhile, are on the outside of it.
The Cartwheel Galaxy It is a celestial body rich in hydrocarbons. and chemical compounds such as silicate powder. In fact, those formations that show the highest concentrations of these materials are the spiral arms that make up its skeleton.
Cart-wheel shows us its printed past in an impressive structure, but it also lets us peek into its future. The vision that it offers today is only a transitory phase. Thus, we know that it will continue to change for the next few billion years.