2024-01-29 15:42:02
MADRID, 29 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A new trove of images from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope shows near- and mid-infrared portraits of 19 spiral galaxies observed from the front.
This new set of images shows stars, gas and dust on the smallest scales ever observed beyond our own galaxy. Teams of researchers are studying these images to discover the origins of these intricate structures. The collective analysis of the research community will ultimately serve to inform theorists’ simulations and advance our understanding of star formation and the evolution of spiral galaxies, reports the ESA website about the James Webb.
If you follow each of the galaxy’s clearly defined, star-studded arms to their centers, you may find old star clusters and sometimes active supermassive black holes. Only the James Webb Space Telescope can deliver highly detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in a combination of near- and mid-infrared light, and now a set of these images is published.
These Webb images are part of a large, long-running project, the Physics with High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) program, which is supported by more than 150 astronomers around the world. Before Webb took these images, PHANGS was already packed with data from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the Very Large Telescope Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, including observations in ultraviolet, visible, and radio. Webb’s contributions to the near- and mid-infrared have provided several new pieces of the puzzle.
Webb’s NIRCam (near-infrared camera) captured millions of stars in these images, which glow in shades of blue. Some stars are spread throughout the spiral arms, but others are grouped closely together in star clusters.
MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument) data from the telescope highlights the bright dust and shows us where it exists behind, around and between the stars. It also highlights stars that have not yet fully formed: they are still encased in the gas and dust that fuel their growth, like bright red seeds on the tips of dusty spikes.
To the astonishment of astronomers, Webb’s images also show large spherical shells of gas and dust that may have been created by exploding stars.
The extended gas regions of the spiral arms also reveal red and orange details. Astronomers study the spacing of these features to learn how a galaxy distributes its gas and dust. These structures will provide key information about how galaxies are built, maintained and stop star formation.
Evidence shows that galaxies grow from the inside out: star formation begins in the cores of galaxies and spreads along their arms, spiraling away from the center. The farther a star is from the galaxy’s core, the more likely it is to be younger. In contrast, the areas near the nuclei that appear illuminated by a blue spotlight are older populations of stars. Galaxy cores awash in pink and red diffraction peaks They may indicate an active supermassive black hole or a saturation of bright star clusters towards the center.
There are many avenues of research that scientists can begin to pursue with the combined PHANGS data, but the unprecedented number of stars resolved by Webb is a great place to start. In addition to immediately publishing these images, the PHANGS team has also published the largest catalog to date of approximately 100,000 star clusters.
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