Webb Telescope Captures Galaxy 20 Million Light Years Away

The James Webb Telescope continues to capture amazing images of our universe. Making us feel even smaller and insignificant with every photo. The vast beauty of space is enough to bring tears to your eyes. And this most recent set of photos is no different. 20 million light years away is a galaxy where stars are forming constantly. Almost like a galactic nursery. To us, it’s phenomenal and awe-inspiring. To scientists it’s so much more.

A delicate tracery of dust and bright star clusters threads across this image from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. Three asteroid trails intrude into this image, visible as tiny blue-green-red dots. Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team

Called the NGC 5068 galaxy, it’s very similar to our milky way. Located within the Virgo constellation that is absolutely bursting with galaxies. Similar to the Pillars of Creation, that gives birth to new stars, NGC 5068 is being studied heavily for that exact reason. Nasa says there are two reasons to be looking more closely at this beautiful repository of starstuff. One being that astronomers gain more and more insight into the fundamental aspects of the universe. The other, a bit more obviously, is studying how galaxies form.

This image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068 is a composite from two of the James Webb Space Telescope’s instruments, MIRI and NIRCam.
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team

Seeing Beyond Previous Reaches

These new photos can help astronomers build on pre-existing knowledge of how the universe works. And it can “give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation” NASA says. The JWT took two photos of significance. One with its NIRcam, Near-Infrared Camera, and the other with its MIRI, Mid-Infrared Instrument. Both of these cameras help see through the dust and distortions that muddy up photos taken by other telescopes.

The James Webb is the penultimate telescope for studying star formations and the births of galaxies and stars. Knowing how they form and seeing more than we could in the past is going to allow astronomers to get so much more information on the secrets of space.