Webb's New Detailed Images 2024 | 19 Nearby Galaxies | #shorts #jwst
Channel: Quantum Leap
Date: 2024-02-02

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope recently delivered detailed scenes of nearby galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light. These images were obtained within the scope of the PHANGS research program.
Janice Lee, a project scientist for strategic initiatives at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore said: “Webb’s new images are extraordinary. They’re mind-blowing even for researchers who have studied these same galaxies for decades. Bubbles and filaments are resolved down to the smallest scales ever observed, and tell a story about the star formation cycle.”
“I feel like our team lives in a constant state of being overwhelmed – in a positive way – by the amount of detail in these images,” added Thomas Williams, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
Webb’s NIRCam captured millions of stars in these images, which sparkle in blue tones. Some stars are spread throughout the spiral arms, but others are clumped tightly together in star clusters.
The telescope’s MIRI data highlights glowing dust, showing us where it exists around and between stars. It also spotlights stars that haven’t yet fully formed.
In addition to immediately releasing these images, the PHANGS team has also released the largest catalog to date of roughly 100,000 star clusters.