The James Webb Space Telescope set its sights on a galaxy 20 million light-years away, capturing a dazzling star-forming galaxy in images streaked with the signature of passing asteroids.
A bright band in the upper left corner of the images shows the bright, bar-shaped center of the galaxy, according to a NASA news release.
The NGC 5068 galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, the same type as our home Milky Way. And the celestial body lies within the Virgo constellation, which is home to an enormous cluster of galaxies.
These new snapshots of NGC 5068 add to a growing repository of data on areas of the observable universe where stars are born. Captured by a variety of instruments from a range of faraway galaxies, these star-forming regions are particularly intriguing to astronomers.
There are two reasons why, according to NASA. One is that studying areas where stars are formed advances astronomers’ understanding of fundamental aspects of the universe — helping to unlock the mysteries surrounding how galaxies form.
“By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,†according to NASA.
The other reason these snapshots pique scientists’ interest is that they build on an existing trove of data collected by instruments, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.
Piecing together all that data can “give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation,†according to NASA, and brings scientists closer to new discoveries.
Other data in that catalogue include images of the Phantom Galaxy M74 and another dazzling spiral galaxy called IC 5332.
Star birth and asteroid trails Webb collected two new images of the NGC 5068 galaxy that were released June 2 — one captured by the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, and the other by the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI.
The MIRI image most clearly shows the “dusty structure†of NGC 5068 and the orbs of gas that contain clusters of new stars, according to NASA. In this image, three asteroid trails are also easily discernible.
The trails appear as mere dots, with one lying directly below the bar-shaped center of NGC 5068 and two more in the bottom-left corner, according to the space agency.
MIRI is the only Webb instrument that is sensitive to light in mid-infrared wavelengths, a type of wavelength that can only be observed by telescopes outside of Earth’s atmosphere. (Infrared is the term scientists use to refer to light that has wavelengths longer than humans can detect with the naked eye.)
The other image captured by NIRCam shows the ghostly gas clouds from the MIRI image illuminated in bright red. The spectrum that the NIRCam instrument uses can see past obstructive elements such as gas and dust to clearly image the galaxy’s stars, according to NASA.
“Dense and bright clouds of dust lie along the path of the spiral arms: These are H II regions, collections of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming,†the space agency said in a news release. “The young, energetic stars ionize the hydrogen around them, creating this glow represented in red.â€
The Webb Telescope is operated by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency. The $10 billion space observatory, launched last December, has enough fuel to keep taking fantastic images for about 20 years.
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A federal law enforcement agency confirmed it's opened an investigation into Robert F. Kennedy Jr. after he allegedly cut off the head of a dead whale and took it home two decades ago.
A judge in a rural Kentucky county was shot and killed in his courthouse chambers Thursday, and the local sheriff was charged with murder, police said.
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South Korea’s government, western countries and adoption agencies worked in tandem to supply some 200,000 Korean children to parents overseas, despite years of evidence they were being procured through questionable or downright unscrupulous means, an investigation led by The Associated Press found.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tapped Treasury Board President Anita Anand to take on additional duties as Canada's minister of transport on Thursday.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh got into a heated exchange in the House of Commons on Thursday, just minutes after Singh announced his party would not be supporting the Conservatives' first non-confidence motion against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government.
The head of Via Rail repeatedly told MPs a train delay over the Labour Day long weekend was an isolated incident, despite a similar event two years ago.
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Ontario’s Minister of Sport, Neil Lumsden, will donate his brain to research.
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Maple Leaf Foods asserted its innocence in an alleged bread price-fixing scheme ahead of a hearing to determine whether it will be added to an ongoing class-action lawsuit.
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A social media post of purple apples “growing†in Saskatchewan has sparked a lot of attention. However, garden experts say there's no such thing.
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A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
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SERVEONE Canada, a global procurement solution company, has begun Canadian operations in Tecumseh.
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The Union of B.C. Municipalities is asking the provincial government to make transit free for teenagers.
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A Vulcan, Alta., man has been charged with a Lethbridge woman's murder after her body was found in the Oyen area.
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A new community health profile in the Algoma District shows the area is significantly below provincial averages in a number of health metrics.
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Three northern Ontario residents are charged with drug trafficking after the vehicle they were in got stuck along a bush road off Highway 17 on Monday.
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A 16-year-old biennial event aimed at fostering business in the country's eastern Arctic and northern regions has been cancelled indefinitely as a dispute unfolds between Inuit in Canada and a Labrador group claiming to share their heritage.
Jim Lester’s farm hopped on the cow-cuddling trend in early August, and his time slots have been pretty well sold out ever since.
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