A new glamor shot of a spiral galaxy is perfect for the Christmas tree.
The galaxy has a rather uninteresting name, but it has been fascinating to study.
As part of a survey to understand star formation, the growth of supermassive black holes, and the way galaxies interact and merge across the vast gulfs of space and time, the JWST peered into NGC 7469 to see how stars form and how black holes grow.
It's also pretty unique. It has elegant, beautiful spiral arms that we can see along their full extent, thanks to a quirk of orientation.
The center of the galaxy has a bright color.
The black hole is surrounded by material that's falling, or accretion, onto the black hole, a process that creates a great deal of light as gravity and the heat of the material cause it to glow.
There is a bright ring at a distance of about 1,500 light years from the center of the universe. Scientists can study the galaxy because we can see it so clearly.
The wavelength range in which JWST views the Universe in such spectacular detail is the same as the wavelength range of the galactic nucleus. It is expected to give unprecedented insight into these processes and how they are linked.
There are new clusters of star formation and evidence that dust is being destroyed very close to the nucleus of the universe.
Highly ionized, diffuse atomic gas is blowing out from the center of the universe at a rate of four million miles per hour. There are no shocks from this wind that are affecting the ring.
There is another galaxy in the left corner of the image. The IC 5283 is locked in a dance with the other. The two galaxies are named after them. The larger galaxy is slurping star-forming gas from its smaller companion, and that's why you can see bright red on the edge.
The interaction between the two galaxies is believed to be the cause of the starburst and the nucleus activity.
The large six-pointed feature is the result of the physical structure of the telescope. It doesn't look real, but it looks pretty.
The new image can be downloaded from the website.
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