The Cartwheel Galaxy is brilliantly captured by the Webb telescope, showcasing its vibrant colors

On Tuesday, NASA and the European Space Agency announced that the Cartwheel Galaxy, located in the constellation Sculptor around 500 million light-years away from Earth, has been captured in a new image by the James Webb Space Telescope. This image provides an unprecedented level of clarity, revealing the spinning ring of color within the galaxy. The Cartwheel Galaxy obtained its distinctive shape as a result of a dramatic collision between two galaxies.

This collision caused two rings to expand from the center of the galaxy, resembling ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown into it. The inner ring, which is white in color, remains closer to the galaxy’s center, while the outer ring, adorned with vibrant spokes of color, has been expanding into the universe for approximately 440 million years. As the outer ring expands, it encounters gas, leading to the formation of new stars. Prior to this discovery, the Hubble telescope had captured images of this rare ring galaxy, which is believed to have originally been a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way before being struck by a smaller intruder galaxy.

However, the Webb telescope, which was launched in December 2021 and garnered worldwide attention with its inaugural images, possesses an extensive range.According to NASA and the ESA, Webb’s capability to detect infrared light enabled it to penetrate the dense veil of “immense quantities of heated dust” that obstructed the observation of the Cartwheel Galaxy.As a result, this breakthrough unveiled fresh insights into the galaxy’s star formation processes and shed light on the behavior of the supermassive black hole situated at its core.

In addition, it had the capability to identify areas abundant in hydrocarbons and other substances, along with dust that bears resemblance to the dust found on Earth.Beyond the Cartwheel, two smaller galaxies emit a radiant glow, while a multitude of galaxies can be observed behind them.According to the space agencies, the observations indicate that the Cartwheel Galaxy is currently in a “highly transitional phase”.

“Although Webb offers us a glimpse into the present condition of the Cartwheel, it also grants us understanding into the galaxy’s past events and its future evolution.”

This article is republished from PhysORG under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.