The Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as the Whirlpool Galaxy, and technically called Messier 51a (M51a), was first discovered in 1773 by French astronomer Charles Messier. This is one of the most famous objects in the night sky. From amateur astronomers to NASAEveryone has been sharing photos of the Whirlpool Galaxy for decades. But an image like the one taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful of its kind, has never been seen.
But after all, what do we see?
This charming image (highlighted above) is a composite of the NIRCam and MIRI telescope instruments. Both devices are designed to capture images of the distant universe by decoding infrared signals coming from distant stars and galaxies. The end result is a Whirlpool Galaxy in never-before-seen detail.
The dark red areas show the hot filamentous dust permeating the center of the galaxy. The red areas show reprocessed light from complex molecules forming in dust grains, while the orange and yellow colors reveal regions of gas ionized by newly forming star clusters.
Stellar feedback has a major impact on the middle of the galaxy and creates a complex network of bright nodes as well as cavernous black spots.
He mentioned the European Space Agency (European Space Agency), which helped build the telescope and launched it into space last year from its spaceport in French Guiana.
The agency states that stellar feedback is the term used to describe the flow of energy from stars into the environments they form and is a crucial process in determining star formation rates. Understanding stellar feedback is vital for building accurate global models of star formation.
Click above to see the image in more detail | source: European Space Agency
James Webb's image is part of a series of observations aimed at elucidating the interplay between stellar feedback and star formation in environments outside our Milky Way Galaxy.
M51 is nicknamed the vortex due to its water-like swirling structure around the drain. It is located about 30 million light-years away, in the constellation Vinacci caneWhat This means that the image we see shows what the Whirlpool Galaxy looked like 30 million years ago.
James Webb shows what's never been seen before
Whirlpool has a little brother - L Dwarf galaxy NGC 5195. The gravitational influence of M51's smaller companion is thought to be partly responsible for the distinctive nature of the galaxy's prominent, well-developed spiral arms.
When Hubble's images of the Whirlpool Galaxy were published in 2011, they left the world awestruck. However, in a predictive turn of events, the team behind the images said that “while Hubble provides clear images of the internal structure of galaxies like M51, the planned James Webb Space Telescope is expected to produce even sharper images.”
If you want to understand how the Whirlpool Galaxy works and why it's so special, watch this video with Michael Merrifield, professor of astronomy at the University of Nottingham:
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