NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has returned incredible new photos of the Sombrero galaxy, offering a new look at the region.
The Sombrero galaxy, named for its resemblance to the Mexican hat, is about 30 million light-years from Earth, NASA said in a news release. The galaxy is surrounded by multiple rings, where stars are formed. At its center is a supermassive black hole that emits a bright jet of light and consumes material from inside the galaxy. Both the rings and black hole are relatively docile, NASA said, and neither creates much solar activity each year.
What sets the galaxy apart is its 2,000 globular clusters, or collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity, according to NASA. These clusters allow astronomers to study stars, since there are thousands of stars in one area. The stars are roughly the same age, but they vary in many other ways, allowing scientists to compare them.
Photos taken by the Webb telescope's Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI, reveals a new texture in the galaxy's outer ring and details the dust along the ring. Such dust is an "essential building block" for solar objects, NASA said.
The outer ring had been photographed before, but appeared smooth. The more detailed MIRI images revealed intricate clumps along the rings. The images also show various galaxies in the background, which NASA said can allow astronomers to learn about their properties, including how far away they are from the Sombrero galaxy.
The Webb telescope is set to begin its fourth year of science operations this summer, NASA said. Researchers are able to apply for observation time with the telescope, with a record-breaking 2,377 proposals submitted in October. Many are requesting to observe distant galaxies like the Sombrero galaxy, NASA said.
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