The Webb Space Telescope is on a tear, imaging star-forming regions throughout the universe. Its latest target? The barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068—a dizzying conglomeration of gas and stars 17 million light-years from Earth.
Launched in December 2021, Webb has been making scientific observations since July 2022. It is uniquely capable of seeing some of the oldest, most distant light, which is visible in infrared wavelengths. Collecting data on this ancient light has informed astronomers about the formation and evolution of the universe as we know it.
But aside from that ancient light, Webb probed a host of cosmic objects, from distant supernovae to planets in our own solar system. Its perceptive vision cuts through clouds of gas and dust that obscure star-forming regions from more veteran telescopes, such as the Hubble Space Telescope.
Little by little—image by image—the telescope is providing new data on how the universe works. See some of the coolest and most amazing Webb images to date HERE.
Enter NGC 5068. Sitting in the constellation Virgo, the barred spiral galaxy is filled with more yellow dust and burning gas regions in Webb’s view. The image is a close-up, showing the core of the galaxy and part of one of its arms. Stars pepper the front of the image.
This image is a composite of images taken using two imagers aboard Webb, the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Combining the powers of both instruments offers a holistic view of the region. the image by NIRCam highlights the foreground stars, while MIRI’s image reveals the larger structure of the galaxy, as well as a couple of asteroid trails (which appear as blue-green-red dots).
There is an extensive thought process behind which filters are used in Webb imaging, and which aspects of each image will be highlighted when the visible light colors are assigned to the infrared wavelengths captured by the observatory. Last year Gizmodo spoke to Webb’s image processors to learn how they choose which parts of an image to emphasize, and how.
The NGC 5068 image was collected along with images of 18 other star-forming galaxies, which astronomers combined with existing data on more than 40,000 star clusters, nebulae, and molecular clouds taken by Hubble, in the Very Large Telescope, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter array.
Collectively, these catalogs deepen astronomers’ knowledge of how stars (and what kinds) form in various recesses of space. In Webb’s vision, scientists cut through the gas and dust that literally obscured understandings of the past.
More: The Coolest Space Images of 2022
