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Space

James Webb captures Phantom Galaxy's spectacular spiraling arms

By Nick Lavars
August 30, 2022
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James Webb's view of the Phantom Galaxy
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
Side-by-side view of Phantom Galaxy observations from different telescopes
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and
James Webb's view of the Phantom Galaxy
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt
Composite image of the Phantom Galaxy
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and
View gallery - 3 images

The James Webb Space Telescope has returned another mesmerizing view of a celestial object, and one that really drives home the scientific potential of the powerful orbiting observatory. The focus of the program's latest spellbinding image is a star-forming system known as the Phantom Galaxy, which reveals its spectacular spiraling arms in exciting new detail.

The first batch of images from the James Webb Space Telescope landed in July, and the instrument has been busy ever since. It has shown us the chaotic Cartwheel Galaxy in stunning detail, and presented a dreamy view of Jupiter, complete with its spectacular array of rings and auroras.

Its latest target is the Phantom Galaxy, also known as Messier 74, which falls into the "grand design spiral" class of galaxy owing to its clear and distinct spiraling arms. It is around 32 million light years away and sits in the Pisces constellation facing almost front-on with Earth, making it popular subject of study for astronomers here on the ground.

Hubble, James Webb's predecessor, has produced awe-inspiring images of the Phantom Galaxy in the past, revealing its star-forming regions in ultraviolet and visible wavelengths of light. By turning Webb's Mid-Infrared instruments to the same patch of the universe, scientists were able to gain a valuable new perspective.

Side-by-side view of Phantom Galaxy observations from different telescopes
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and

These Webb images reveal the galaxy's spiraling filaments in sharp detail, and also create an unobstructed view of the nuclear star cluster at its center, as compared to Hubble. The lack of gas clouding this section clears the way for closer inspection of the galaxy's star-forming regions, which could lead to accurate new measurements of these stars' masses and ages.

Composite image of the Phantom Galaxy
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and

And by combining data from different telescopes in this way, as seen in the composite image above, scientists can study astronomical objects from exciting new angles. We can expect to see this shed new light on other nearby star-forming galaxies as part of the international PHANGS survey, which is compiling high-resolution observations of 18 others using Webb, Hubble, ALMA and the VLT.

Source: ESA

View gallery - 3 images

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SpaceJames Webb Space TelescopeNASAESA
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Nick Lavars
Nick has been writing and editing at New Atlas for over six years, where he has covered everything from distant space probes to self-driving cars to oddball animal science. He previously spent time at The Conversation, Mashable and The Santiago Times, earning a Masters degree in communications from Melbourne’s RMIT University along the way.
3 comments
anthony88
The universe may be infinite, but it's the finite things that make it awesome.
WB
I simply havent seen a single optical normal pic.. its always composite or infrared or radio ... just so they can throw whatever strange color they can come up with at it... how about lets make background orange and some nebula in pink with some purple thrown in and then we can call it.. Webb telescope finds strange part of space - imagine the amount of clicks you can get.. and just put a small asterix at the bottom calling it composite image.. no one would notice.. guaranteed...
aksdad
All the images are stunning but the clarity of the Webb image is breathtaking, especially in the central region. It fills me with awe when I consider the vast scale—tens of thousands of light years across—and the fact that there are 100 billion stars in it. And the fact that we have technology now to see things that were unfathomable barely a century ago. What a time we live in.
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