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What it is : Sombrero Galaxy ( M104 ) , a spiraling galaxy .
Where it is:30 million light - geezerhood distant in the Virgo configuration .
JWST’s image of the Sombrero Galaxy reveals the clumpy nature of the dust along the galaxy’s outer ring.
When it was shared : Nov. 25 , 2024 .
Why it ’s so special : It may have been first discovered in 1781 , but the ably named Sombrero Galaxy has never looked like this . This strike young view on an image of the deep sky come fromNASA’sJames Webb Space Telescope , which has rendered the spiraling Galax urceolata that await like a broad - brimmed Mexican hat both in high resolution and at mid - infrared wavelength for the first fourth dimension .
In seeable ignitor the Sombrero Galaxy — which we see boundary - on from thesolar system — has a bright bright white core encircle by thick rubble lane . But in the mid - infrared it takes on an entirely different facial expression . Now looking more like a bullseye than a hat , it ’s a more refined , insidious structure with a smooth inner saucer and clumps in its out ring .
A comparison of Hubble’s view of the Sombrero Galaxy (bottom) with the new JWST view (top).
link up : James Webb Space Telescope discovers mysterious ' ruddy monster ' galaxies so large they should n’t be
This all - young view fromJWST ’s Mid - Infrared Instrument ( MIRI ) reveals mystery about the Sombrero Galaxy ’s theme and its function in astronomic procedure . Scientists say the clumps in the outer dust hoop are likely young star - form regions , which is decisive because the Sombrero Galaxy is by no substance a fertile star manufacturing plant . Another edge - on galaxy long analyze by astronomers , theCigar Galaxy or M82 , in the constellation Ursa Major , produces 10 times as many stars as are born in the Milky Way galaxy . That ’s not the lawsuit for the Sombrero Galaxy , whose dust rings produce less than one solar heap of star per year . That ’s about half as prolific as the Milky Way .
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Beyond the Sombrero Galaxy itself , JWST ’s simulacrum captures a backdrop of galaxies dispel across space , each glowing in different colour that suggest at their distance and properties .
This Sombrero Galaxy image is just the late of hundreds of groundbreaking images produced by the JWST since its launch on Christmas Day , 2021 . As this essential prick for advanced astronomy approach its fourth yr of scientific discipline operations in 2025 , demand for observance metre has reached record heights .
A staggering 2,377 proposals were submit for the approaching cycle , call for well-nigh 78,000 hours of scope prison term . That ’s an oversubscription pace of nine to one , which reflect the scope ’s turn importance in tacklingthe biggest questions in uranology .
