Though we all have differences, there’s one commonality that has prevailed for all of humanity: we are all floating on a rock, flying through outer space at over a million miles an hour.
Thanks to the rapid advancement of technology in the past century, we can observe more of the Universe than ever before.
The scale and sheer size of the Universe make it impossible to truly learn everything, but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
Here's what's happening in space this week.
The James Webb Space Telescope is continuing to revolutionize our understanding of the Universe. Researchers at NASA recently unveiled new images from the telescope of nearby galaxies in stunning detail.
The photos were included in a release from NASA last week. Astronomers at NASA say the new data has allowed them to peer into parts of galaxies we've never seen.
Thanks to these advanced scientific instruments aboard NASA's $10-billion Webb Telescope, new details previously concealed by gas and dust are now visible with extraordinary detail.
“Areas which are completely dark in Hubble imaging light up in exquisite detail in these new infrared images, allowing us to study how the dust in the interstellar medium has absorbed the light from forming stars and emitted it back out in the infrared, illuminating an intricate network of gas and dust,” said team member Karin Sandstrom of the University of California.
The structures revealed within the images give researchers more insight into how stars initially form, as well as how those processes affect the evolution of the largest structures in our Universe: galaxies.
The newly released images were taken using one of Webb's four scientific instruments, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). Webb's MIRI sees in the mid-infrared spectrum which gives astronomers the ability to see extremely distant galaxies, according to NASA.
The data from MIRI uncovered a network of structures within these distant galaxies that were invisible to previous telescopes. Some of the structures revealed in the galaxies provide researchers with additional clues as to how stars are formed, including dust cavities and massive overlapping gas bubbles.
The new data is the result of the Physics at High Angular Resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration. Comprised of over 100 researchers from around the world, the group is conducting the largest survey of nearby galaxies in Webb's first year of operation.
So far, the group has observed five of their 19 projected targets: M74, NGC 7496, IC 5332, NGC 1365, and NGC 1433. (Pictured in order below)
Though they have not yet reached the halfway point of their targets, astronomers working on the project are already in awe of the results.
Erik Rosolowky of the University of Alberta said, "We are directly seeing how the energy from the formation of young stars affects the gas around them, and it’s just remarkable."
The data collected by the PHANGS team was compiled into 21 studies and recently published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
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