Image: NASA’s Webb Sheds Light on Galaxy Evolution, Black Holes

Description: In Webb’s image of Stephan’s Quintet, we see 5 galaxies, 4 of which interact. (The left galaxy is actually in the foreground!) These colliding galaxies are pulling and stretching each other in a gravitational dance. Webb will revolutionize our knowledge of star formation and gas interactions within: nasa.gov/webbfirstimages/

Here’s Stephan’s Quintet as taken by Webb’s MIRI instrument. In the mid-infrared, Webb pierces through dust, giving new insight into how interactions like these may have driven galaxy evolution in the early universe.

This image contains one more MIRI filter than was used in the NIRCam-MIRI composite picture. The image processing specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore opted to use all three MIRI filters and the colors red, green and blue to most clearly differentiate the galaxy features from each other and the shock waves between the galaxies. In this image, red denotes dusty, star-forming regions, as well as extremely distant, early galaxies and galaxies enshrouded in thick dust. Blue point sources show stars or star clusters without dust. Diffuse areas of blue indicate dust that has a significant amount of large hydrocarbon molecules. For small background galaxies scattered throughout the image, the green and yellow colors represent more distant, earlier galaxies that are rich in these hydro carbons as well.
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