Gaze into the otherworldly beauty of spiral galaxies and dusty nebulae.
Posted May 26, 2024 8:02 AM EDT
Globular star cluster NGC 6440 orbits within the Milky Way’s galactic bulge. Observing the densely packed star clusters was a challenge until JWST came along. ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, P. Freire; With thanks to: M. Cadelano and C. Pallanca
Nearly a million kilometers away from Earth, the James Webb Space Telescope studies the cosmos.
Since its launch on December 25, 2021, JWST has provided groundbreaking insights into the history of our universe. And 2024 was no different. This year, JWST has already measured ‘hot Jupiter’, recorded the birth of stars, found evidence of a neutron star in fiery supernova remnants and brought new insights into the study of spiral galaxies with wavy arms.
We’ve rounded up eight of our favorite JWST images from 2024 that capture the awe-inspiring glory of space.
Within the Large Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way) lies N79, a massive star-forming complex. N79 is pumping out stars impressively fast, much faster than comparable regions in our Milky Way. Image: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, O. Nayak, M. Meixner ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, O. Nayak,At the heart of I Zwicky 18 are two star formation bursts. The irregular dwarf galaxy was first identified in the 1930s, but scientists are using Webb’s powerful resolution and sensitivity in the infrared to take a closer look at I Zwicky 18 and study the life cycle of stars. Image: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A. Hirschauer, M. Meixner et al.About 32 million light-years from Earth lies NGC 1433, a spiral galaxy with a luminous center. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Janice Lee (STScI), Thomas Williams (Oxford), PHANGS teamJWST has captured the sharpest infrared images of the Horsehead Nebula’s “moons” yet. Young stars can be seen sparkling within the heavenly blue-gray cloud. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, Karl Misselt (University of Arizona), Alain Abergel (AIM Paris-Saclay)Hot, massive stars lurk in the dust of NGC 604 early in their lives. The star-forming region is in the Triangulum Galaxy, 2.73 million light-years away. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScIHidden behind large amounts of dust, JWST captured young stars in the massive arms of NGC 1559, a barred spiral galaxy 35 million light-years from Earth. Image: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy, J. Lee and the PHANGS team ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy,Data from the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes were combined to capture this image of NGC 5468, a galaxy located about 130 million light-years from Earth. Image: Webb NIRCam + Hubble WFC3
