A New View of a Distant Spiral

Day 16 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar

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Dec 16, 2024 - 14:00
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A New View of a Distant Spiral
A tight view of a face-on spiral galaxy anchored by a central region that has a light blue haze, surrounded by complex orange-colored spiral arms
NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Lee, T. Williams, PHANGS Team

Day 16 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar: a new view of a distant spiral. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope shows spiral galaxy NGC 628 in a new light. The galaxy, also known as Messier 74, lies about 32 million light-years away, and was first discovered in 1780. This galaxy was observed earlier this year as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, a large project that includes observations from several space- and ground-based telescopes of many galaxies to help researchers study all phases of the star-formation cycle. Webb’s new images combining near- and mid-infrared light observations have revealed previously unseen intricate details in the filaments, arms, and centers of many galaxies.

See the full advent calendar here, where a new image will be revealed each day until December 25.

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