This may be the most distant, well-defined spiral galaxy ever identified by humans

The Webb Space Telescope is ringing in the new year in a similar way to us humans, by capturing images of brilliant bursts of color in the sky. Well, not quite “in the sky,” Webb himself is located a million miles from Earth, and his targets are much farther away still. But the modern space observatory recently imaged two large spiral galaxies, one of which appears to be the most distant yet identified.

Researchers have written papers on the two massive spiral galaxies currently Hosted On the arXiv preprint server. One of the ancient galaxies is called A2744-GDSp-z4; The other – which is further away – is called Zhúlóng, after the red dragon god in Chinese mythology. Both spiral galaxies were recently discovered Spiral galaxies grand designa type of spiral galaxy with well-defined arms. Spiral galaxies with less defined arms are called flocculent spiral galaxies. For reference, our Milky Way Galaxy is A Barred spiral galaxyalthough researchers continue to investigate its precise structure and What label fits it.

A2744-GDSp-z4 (sorry, no fun moniker) can be seen below in the composite images by Webb. The galaxy weighs about 14 billion solar masses and has a surprisingly advanced structure for its age. The existence of the galaxy indicates that even 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang – that is, early in the existence of the universe – there were clearly defined spiral galaxies. Although the spiral arms may not be completely clear to our eyes, you can see the general shape, especially in the image on the far left. The galaxy is found in the galaxy cluster Abell 2744, one of the Webb clusters The closest scientific goals Which has paid off previously Likewise distant galaxies.

Zuolong, shown in pink at the top of this article, is “the most distant bulge disk galaxy with spiral arms known to date,” according to the paper. It has a mass similar to that of the Milky Way (which is higher than average for such an early galaxy) and has a relatively low star formation rate. This large spiral design generates only about 66 solar masses per year. This discovery is interesting when paired with previous Webb Telescope data Shown Ancient galaxies were metal-poor and extremely gassy. Zhúlóng, despite its size, may have lacked the right assets for a faster rate of star formation.

Super-designed spirals are very distant, which is why they appear pixelated in web images. Part of the reason Webb can see such distant objects at all is that he takes advantage of them Gravity lenses– Regions of space-time with intense gravity that bend light, allowing us to see objects behind them. When light is bent, it is refocused – magnified – for telescopes like Webb.

In other words, although massive galaxies look like smudges, the images are stunning, and the Web works completely normally. Nearby galaxies imaged with a telescope appear more clearly. Below is a slider showing how Webb’s instruments reveal different aspects of a spiral galaxy of great design. The image on the left was captured by a near-infrared webcam, or NIRCam, while the image on the right was captured by MIRI, the telescope’s mid-infrared imager. NIRCam captures the warmer light from newly forming stars, while MIRI captures galactic light that comes from cool dust and gas grains. The galaxy shown here is much steeper than the ancient galaxies discussed in this article because it is much closer, only 27 million light-years away.

Webb continues to change our understanding of the early universe as compared to galactic evolution, a feat made possible by the telescope’s remarkable insight. Webb can see through massive gas clouds that block out faint, distant light, allowing researchers to image objects from the early universe. In the last two years, Webb has Illustrated galaxies Which was formed only a few hundred million years ago After the big bang and Raised new questions About how those structures emerge over time.