Gaze Slack-jawed at the Haunting Beauty of Galaxy NGC 1566, Captured by JWST, Processed by Judy Schmidt

There is a new view from the James Webb Space Telescope. Judy was an amateur image editor who took the raw data from the Mid-Infrared Instrument and teased out a view of a distant galaxy. Not a lot of stars can be seen because the arms are full of dust.

The physics of star formation is intertwined with the amount of dust and gas in the universe. The small central nucleus of NGC 1566 is very bright, which is a sign that it is part of the Seyfert class. The centers of the galaxies are very active, emitting strong bursts of radiation and could be home to many millions of black holes.

The constellation of Dorado is 40 million light years away. The shape of this intermediate spiral galaxy is similar to a barred spiral galaxy and a regular spiral galaxy.