NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently captured the chaos of the Cartwheel Galaxy, which is nearly 500 million light-years away in the constellation of the Sculptor. It also captured two smaller companion galaxies against a backdrop of many other galaxies.
This detailed image produced by Webb’s powerful infrared gaze revealed new details about star formation and the galaxy’s central black hole. It shows how the Cartwheel Galaxy has changed over billions of years.
The Chariot Wheel Galaxy, as seen in the image, appears like a Chariot Wheel. Its appearance is the result of an intense event: a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy (not visible in this image).
NASA officials said: “Collisions of galactic proportions cause a cascade of different, smaller events between the galaxies involved; the Chariot Wheel is no exception.”
The galaxy contains two rings: a bright inner ring and a colored ring surrounding it. The two rings expand outward from the center of the collision, like ripples in a pond after a stone is thrown into it. Because of these exciting features of the galaxy, this galaxy is also known as the ring galaxy.
Huge young star clusters are seen in the brightest regions of the core, which also includes a huge amount of hot material. On the other hand, star formation and supernovae predominate in the outer ring, which has been growing for nearly 440 million years. As it grows, this ring collides with the surrounding gas, causing star formation.
Other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have previously examined the Cartwheel. But the dramatic galaxy has been shrouded in mystery, perhaps literally, given the amount of dust obscuring the view. Webb, with his ability to detect infrared light, now uncovers new insights into the nature of the Cartwheel.
This Webb Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) image shows a group of galaxies, including a large, distorted ring-shaped galaxy known as the Cartwheel. The Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, consists of a bright inner ring and an active outer ring. Although this outer ring has a lot of star formation, the dusty zone in between reveals many stars and star clusters. Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team
NASA said: “The Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam), Webb’s primary imager, looks in the near-infrared range from 0.6 to 5 microns, seeing crucial wavelengths of light that can reveal even more stars than seen in visible light This is because young stars, many of which are forming in the outer ring, are less obscured by the presence of dust when seen in infrared light. In this image, the NIRCam data are blue, orange, and yellow. The galaxy shows many blue dots, individual stars, or pockets of star formation. NIRCam also reveals the difference between the distribution or smooth shape of populations of older stars and dense dust in the core compared to clumpy forms associated with younger star populations outside it.”
“Learning finer details about the dust inhabiting the galaxy, however, requires Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). The MIRI data are colored red in this composite image. It reveals regions within the Cartwheel Galaxy rich in hydrocarbons and other chemical compounds, as well as silicate dust, like much of Earth’s dust. These regions form a series of spiral radii that essentially form the galaxy’s skeleton. These radii are evident in previous observations of the Hubble released in 2018, but they become much more prominent in this Webb image.”