A Stunning, Lonely, and Fiery Galaxy Is a Treasure Trove of Data
As scientists continue to use the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to do incredible things, like find the first direct evidence of a neutron star in a nearby supernova remnant, it also generates many beautiful images that are easy for anyone to appreciate. That’s where the monthly Webb Picture of the Month comes in. This month’s new photo is of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1559.
The galaxy features a bright, distinct central region loosely arranged in a spiral shape, while the spiral arms are more detailed. These arms feature interstellar dust, which forms the interstellar medium and is the fuel required for new star formation.
The image features data collected by two of Webb’s imaging instruments, the Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI) and the Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam). In this new galactic portrait, MIRI shows the glow of the interstellar dust, while NIRCam shows the light from the stars that already exist, even young ones cocooned in dust that other telescopes, like Hubble, struggle to see through. NIRCam also resolves emissions from ionized nebulae surrounding the young stars.
The data was collected as part of the PHANGS team’s efforts to observe and study 55 galaxies that have also been mapped by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) radio telescope, which is located at nearly 17,000 feet elevation in Chile.
By combining ALMA’s data with Webb’s, scientists can learn new details about how stars are born, live, and die within a diverse range of galaxies across the Universe.
The data is also part of the Treasury program, which means that it is entirely open source and accessible to all scientific community members as soon as it’s available. This enables more and faster research.
This galaxy, NGC 1559, is 35 million light-years away in the rarely studied southern constellation Reticulum (The Reticule). It gets further away all the time, too, as it is receding away from Earth at about 1,300 kilometers per second.
Despite appearing in the sky near the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), NGC 1559 is actually nowhere near it. It is a mere trick of perception. The barred spiral galaxy is not close to any known galaxies or part of a larger galaxy cluster. “It truly is a loner,” the European Space Agency (ESA) explains.
Thanks to the power of the James Webb Space Telescope, while NGC 1559 may be far away and alone in the cosmos, people on Earth can appreciate it in all its beautiful glory.
Image credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy, J. Lee and the PHANGS Team
