Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have released new images of 19 nearby face-on spiral galaxies seen in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light. Spiral galaxies are some of the universe’s most awe-inspiring bodies. Their buff and wavy arms are chock full of stars arranged in a whirlpool pattern with vibrant colors and light. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the most visually spectacular spiral galaxies are considered “face-on,” which means that their spiral arms and bulge are clearly visible.
[Related: Elliptical galaxies may just be spiral galaxies with their arms lobbed off.]
These new images combine years of data collected from multiple different telescopes to paint a more complete picture of these whirly spiral galaxies and how they form.
“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,” Thomas Williams, a postdoctoral researcher from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.
Tracing spiral arms
JWST’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIR-Cam) captured millions of stars that appear in blue tones in the new images. Some of the stars appear climbed tightly together in clusters, while others are spread along the spiral arms.
The telescope’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) data shows where glowing space dust exists around and between the stars. It also shows some stars that have not fully formed. These stars are still encased in the dust and gas that fuel their growth.
“These are where we can find the newest, most massive stars in the galaxies,” Erik Rosolowsky, a physicist from the University of Alberta in Canada, said in a…
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