The world’s most powerful space telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, continues to unveil astonishing data as it peers deep into nearby galaxies, including IC 5332, Messier 74, NGC 1365, and NGC 7496.
According to Sci-News, the focus of scientists this time is on polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), which can reveal a wealth of physical characteristics about the interstellar environment.
NGC 7496, a galaxy 24 million light-years away – (Image: NASA/ESA/CSA).
PAHs are tiny “dust particles,” and their small size makes them incredibly valuable to astronomy. When PAHs absorb a photon from a star, they vibrate and generate emission points that suitable telescopes can observe.
On Earth, PAHs can form from smoke, tar, and other harmful chemicals that can contaminate food and materials. However, in the astronomical environment, they are closely linked to the processes of star formation and the characteristics of “stellar nurseries.”
This serves as a thread for Earthlings to grasp if there is a telescope capable of observing in the mid-infrared wavelength, a task that NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope once accomplished.
With James Webb, the images have become clearer than ever and have assisted a research team led by Dr. Karin Sandstrom from the University of California, San Diego, in mapping the interiors of these four distant galaxies, revealing many striking details such as gas filaments, energy bubbles blown from newly formed stars, stars with extremely powerful radiation fields, and even the “death of stars” known as supernovae.
All of this unveils the core of a galaxy’s star formation process, akin to the beginning of many worlds: billions of years ago, the Sun was born in this way, gradually giving rise to planets, including Earth.
Findings from this new observation will be presented in a series of studies set to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
James Webb is currently the most powerful space telescope in the world, primarily built and operated by NASA, with support from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
