@space_telescopes

class="content__text" A star is born! New images from the James Webb Space Telescope are revealing the presence of a network of highly structured features within nearby galaxies—glowing cavities of dust and huge cavernous bubbles of gas that line the spiral arms—caused by the formation of young stars. Until Webb’s high resolution at infrared wavelengths came along, stars at the earliest point of their life cycle in nearby galaxies like NGC 1433 remained obscured by gas and dust. The observations were taken by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, which has plans to study a diverse sample of 19 spiral galaxies. In Webb’s first few months of science operations, observations of five of those targets—including NGC 1433, NGC 7496, and NGC 1366, seen in these images—have been captured. #NASAWebb #UnfoldtheUniverse #JWST #galaxies #stars #infrared Credit: Science: NASA, ESA, CSA, and J. Lee (NOIRLab). Image processing: A. Pagan (STScI).

February 19, 2023