Researchers using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have taken an extraordinary picture of a strange galaxy. This galaxy, called NGC 1365 or the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy, has one of the highest star formation rates of any galaxy we have ever seen, and JWST has revealed it in more detail than ever before.
The star formation in NGC 1365 is driven by the bar of stars at its centre, connecting its two spiral arms together. 鈥淭o make stars, you have to collapse gas together,鈥� says at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Maryland. 鈥淚n NGC 1365 the bar acts like a conveyor belt, sending gas right into the heart of the galaxy where it鈥檚 as concentrated as can be.鈥�
Whitmore and his colleagues are working on a project to observe a series of star-forming galaxies with JWST to learn about stellar nurseries聽and how it affects the evolution of galaxies. We know a bit about these processes from other telescopes, but they are difficult to observe because of the dust that often shrouds bustling areas within galaxies.
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鈥淚f you look at a sunset on a cloudy day, you can barely see it,鈥� says Whitmore. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we were dealing with here 鈥� there are all these dust clouds in the way which hide the star formation.鈥�
JWST uses infrared wavelengths, though, which allowed it to peer through the dust to the heart of the galaxy. This allowed the researchers to spot a feature in NGC 1365 that they knew ought to be there, but that was tough to see before: a small ring around the centre of the galaxy where the most intense star formation takes place.
鈥淵ou can kind of see the ring in optical wavelengths, but now it鈥檚 like whoa, there it is. There鈥檚 the ring,鈥� says Whitmore. He and his colleagues plan to measure the ages of star clusters within that ring to figure out how stars move through it once they form.
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