The Cartwheel Galaxy is seen in a recently released image from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, still struggling to recover from a collision with a smaller galaxy 400 million years ago.
The dazzling inner ring and vibrant outer ring that give the Cartwheel Galaxy its name is located approximately 500 million light-years from Earth. According to astronomers, a smaller galaxy crashed through what was once a massive spiral galaxy like the Milky Way. Earlier observations made with other telescopes suggested that the area between the rings was obscured by dust.
JWST’s thermal imaging have now discovered previously undiscovered stars and structure by peering through the dust (SN: 7/11/22). The newly discovered image reveals regions of the galaxy that underwent intense star formation as a result of the collision. Unknown processes are causing some of those new stars to emerge in spoke-like configurations between the inner and outer rings.
Galaxies with two rings are also more uncommon than ring galaxies. Because of its peculiar form, the galaxy left behind from the long-ago collision is now filled with many waves of gas that are rippling back and forth. According to JWST project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, it’s comparable to dropping a pebble in the bathtub. “First, you get this ring, then it bounces off the bathtub walls and reflects back, giving you a more intricate structure.”
The Cartwheel Galaxy is likely facing a difficult recovery process as a result of the impact, and astronomers are unsure of what the galaxy will ultimately look like.
The tiny galaxy that started all of this chaos left before it could be photographed. Pontoppidan declares, “It’s gone off on its merry way.”
image credits: NASA
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