The Webb Space Telescope Peeps Into Chaos – Captures Stellar Gymnastics in the Wheel Galaxy

Webb’s instruments reveal new details about star formation

A large spotted pink wheel-like galaxy with a small inner ellipse, with a hazy blue in the middle to the right, with two smaller spiral galaxies of about the same size to the left on a black background. This image of the Wheel Galaxy and its companion galaxies is a composite from the Near Infrared Camera and Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument, which reveals details that are difficult to see from the separate images alone. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

The amazing imaging capabilities of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope have discovered the Pinwheel Galaxy, a rare ring galaxy that was previously shrouded in dust and mystery.

Formed by the collision of a large spiral galaxy with another smaller one, the galaxy has retained much of its spiral character and has also undergone major changes in its overall structure.

Webb’s highly precise instruments separated stars and individual star-forming regions within the galaxy, and also revealed the behavior of the black hole at its center. These new details allow a renewed understanding of a galaxy that is in the midst of slow change.

This image by Webb shows a group of galaxies, including the Pinwheel Galaxy. The mid-infrared light reveals small details about the regions of dust and young stars between the galaxy’s rings, which are rich in hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds, and also in silicate dust, like most of the dust on Earth. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

The James Webb Space Telescope’s peek into the chaos of the Pinwheel Galaxy reveals new details about star formation and the black hole at the center of the galaxy. Webb’s powerful infrared vision produced this detailed image of the Wheel Galaxy and two smaller companion galaxies with many other galaxies in the background. This new look reveals how the wheel galaxy has changed over billions of years.

The Wheel Galaxy, located about 500 million light-years away in the constellation Psal, is a rare sight. Its appearance, which is very similar to a cart wheel, is the result of a powerful event – a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy, which is not visible in this image. Collisions on a galactic scale cause a chain of various smaller events between the galaxies involved, and the Wheel Galaxy is no exception.

The most noticeable effect of the collision was on the shape and structure of the galaxy. The pinwheel galaxy has two rings – a bright inner ring and a colorful outer ring. These two rings spread out from the center of the collision, like ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown in. Because of these distinguishing features astronomers call it a “ring galaxy,” a structure less common than spiral galaxies like our Milky Way.

The bright core contains a huge amount of hot dust, with huge clusters of young stars in the brightest regions. On the other hand, in the outer ring, which expanded for about 440 million years, there is mainly star formation and supernovae. As this ring expands, it penetrates the surrounding gas and causes stars to form.

Other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have previously examined the wheel galaxy. But the dramatic galaxy was shrouded in mystery – perhaps literally, due to the amount of dust obscuring our visibility. Webb, with his ability to detect infrared light, is now revealing new insights into the nature of the pinwheel galaxy.

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