It hasn't even been a fortnight since the first image was released, and the James Webb Space Telescope is still knocking our socks off.
Citizen scientists are still looking through the raw data to see what they can find even though only a few images have been released.
Judy is one of the people who has been processing space data for a long time. We now have amazing images of two spiral galaxies thanks to her work.
The PhantomGalaxy is the first one. There is a second one. Both are relatively close to the Milky Way, and both are the subject of ongoing observations as part of the PHANGS survey, to better chart the connections between young stars and the clouds of coldmolecular gas that give birth to them.
There is a new image of the old one.
The new space telescope is very much worth the hype, and already the images show that.
One of the most spectacular types of galaxies in our sky is called NGC 628. A "grand design" spiral galaxy has arms that are well formed and relatively unobscured. It is close enough to provide a lot of detail for study.
In 2007, a Hubble image was released.
The gas in the spiral arms is rich with star-forming gas. Since the turn of the millennium, at least three supernovaes have been observed in the same place.
A barred spiral galaxy is located just 24 million light-years away and has spiral arms extending from a bar. The bars are thought to be the result of the dense region pulling stars towards it.
There is a new view of the old one.
These bars are thought to be regions of rich star formation because of the way gas is funneled into their centers. An excellent laboratory for studying how stars are born can be found in a barred spiral.
It's a good thing that the images of Hubble are very similar to the ones of Webb. Two telescopes are operating in different light regimes. While Hubble is primarily an optical and ultraviolet instrument, Webb sees in IR, which can capture light obscured by dust and gas in optical wavelength. Hubble picks up the gas and the other astronomer can see the newborn stars.
David Thilker explained that we will see star clusters in the hearts of the dense molecular clouds. We can see the star clusters that have been assembled and measure their properties before they evolve.
The PHANGS-HST Team released a Hubble image.
When you compare the images, you can see that the glowing gas is still picked up, but more detail is shown. In Hubble's images, the galactic nuclei are just a bright, featureless glow, while in the space around the black holes, there is much more detail shown.
A new era of space science is about to begin. A galaxy at a record-breaking distance has already been identified by the astronomer. On arXiv, the papers are thick and fast. The new images are some of the most detailed we have seen.
We will be waiting in anticipation of what the data will reveal, scientists are yet to do an analysis. We are content to enjoy the pretty.
You can download the new images from the page on the internet.
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