📷 Image Credits: hindustantimes.com
In an extraordinary new development, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled remarkable details of the galaxy group named ‘Stephan’s Quintet.’ This close-knit group of galaxies provides astronomers with a unique opportunity to witness galactic mergers and interactions up close. The recent image captured by the Webb Telescope offers unprecedented insights into how interacting galaxies stimulate star formation within each other, as well as how the gas within these galaxies is disrupted. Stephan’s Quintet serves as a valuable ‘laboratory’ for studying these essential processes that shape all galaxies. Additionally, the image reveals outflows generated by a supermassive black hole in one of the galaxies within the group, showcasing a level of detail never seen before.
Stephan’s Quintet, consisting of five galaxies, has long been a significant astronomical feature, even appearing in the classic film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ However, the latest image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope presents Stephan’s Quintet in a completely new light. This massive mosaic image, the largest captured by the Webb Telescope to date, covers an area equivalent to about one-fifth of the Moon’s diameter and comprises nearly 1,000 individual image files. The data from the Webb Telescope exposes previously unseen aspects of this galaxy group, including clusters of young stars, regions of intense star formation, and vast streams of gas, dust, and stars being drawn from several galaxies due to gravitational interactions. The image showcases significant shock waves generated as one galaxy, NGC 7318B, collides with the cluster.
With its advanced infrared capabilities and exceptional spatial resolution, the Webb Telescope unveils intricate details within the galaxy group. Webb’s observations reveal the dramatic effects of galactic interactions, shedding light on how these interactions have influenced galaxy evolution over time. The proximity of Stephan’s Quintet provides scientists with a front-row seat to observe galaxies merging and influencing one another, ultimately enhancing our understanding of galaxy formation processes. Through this study, researchers can investigate the impact of such interactions on star formation rates and gas dynamics within galaxies, providing valuable insights into the broader evolution of cosmic structures.
Furthermore, the Webb Telescope examines the active galactic nucleus within the topmost galaxy of Stephan’s Quintet, NGC 7319, which hosts a supermassive black hole 24 million times more massive than the Sun. Through detailed spectroscopic analyses, conducted using the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) and… (article continues)
