James Webb Space Telescope Captures Galaxy’s Shinning Heart

Scientists recently shared a breathtaking new image taken from the lens of the James Webb Space Telescope, showing a galaxy with a shining center. The image shows a galaxy called NGC 7469, which is around 220 million light-years away and located in the constellation of Pegasus.

NGC 7469 is a spiral galaxy, similar to our Milky Way, and appears to be facing straight toward us. The image also shows more distant galaxies in the background, along with a companion galaxy named NGC 5283 that is visible on the bottom left side.

Shining Bright Center Of The Galaxy

The most noticeable feature of the latest James Webb image is its bright red star shape coming out from the center of the galaxy, known as the active galactic nucleus or AGN. This region is very bright as dust swirls around the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, eventually being gulped in and giving off heat and light as it enters the black hole.

“A prominent feature of this image is the striking six-pointed star that perfectly aligns with the heart of NGC 7469,” the JWST team explained.

“Unlike the galaxy, this is not a real celestial object, but an imaging artifact known as a diffraction spike, caused by the bright, unresolved AGN. Diffraction spikes are patterns produced as light bends around the sharp edges of a telescope. Webb’s primary mirror is composed of hexagonal segments that each contain edges for light to diffract against, giving six bright spikes. There are also two shorter, fainter spikes, which are created by diffraction from the vertical strut that helps support Webb’s secondary mirror.”

James Webb Leverages MIRI and NIRCam

The James Webb Space Telescope is equipped with sophisticated technologies to observe the cosmos in extreme detail. The region was observed using three of its instruments, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam), and the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec).

The AGN has a starburst region nearby, where stars take birth at a faster rate. The research using JWST aims to understand the relationship between this AGN and the starburst region that lies nearby, and what role the dust play between the two.