New Galactic Images From the James Webb Space Telescope

• Alan Taylor
• 12:26 PM ET
• 12 Photos
• In Focus

A new collection of images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was recently released, showing incredibly detailed views of spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light. Comparing these new images with previous views seen by NASA’s other space telescope, Hubble, in visible and ultraviolet light, reveals new galactic structures and elements. The infrared images from JWST highlight the glowing lanes and clouds of dust lying within the spiral arms of each galaxy. These JWST images are part of a long-standing project called the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program. Gathered below are a dozen of these new views combined with older ones from Hubble.

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• A face-on view of spiral galaxy NGC 1566, split diagonally in this combination image. The image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) appears at upper right, and the Hubble Space Telescope’s at lower left. The JWST image shows galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light, compared with Hubble’s view, which shows visible and ultraviolet light. In the JWST image, dust glows in infrared light, whereas Hubble shows dark regions where the starlight is absorbed by dust. #

  NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee, STScI, Thomas Williams, PHANGS Team
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• A combination image of spiral galaxy NGC 4321, seen by JWST in infrared (bottom), and by Hubble (top) in visible and ultraviolet light. NGC 4321 lies about 55 million light-years away from Earth. #

  NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee, STScI, Thomas Williams, PHANGS Team
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• A combination image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, seen by JWST in infrared........
  

  © The Atlantic