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NASA’s new telescope captures image of Cartwheel Galaxy

NASA Space Telescope
Posted at 2:09 PM, Aug 03, 2022
and last updated 2022-08-03 14:09:32-04

In the weeks since it began beaming back images, NASA's new Webb Space Telescope continues to provide a stunning peak into the universe.

On Tuesday, NASA released another impressive image of the Cartwheel Galaxy.

The Cartwheel Galaxy is located 500 million light years from Earth in the Sculptor constellation.

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Cartwheel Galaxy

NASA said its appearance is due to "an intense event – a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy not visible in this image. Collisions of galactic proportions cause a cascade of different, smaller events between the galaxies involved; the Cartwheel is no exception."

The Hubble Telescope previously took an image of the galaxy, but its picture lacked the fidelity the Webb Space Telescope provided.

"Other telescopes, including the Hubble Space Telescope, have previously examined the Cartwheel," NASA said. "But the dramatic galaxy has been shrouded in mystery – perhaps literally, given the amount of dust that obscures the view. Webb, with its ability to detect infrared light, now uncovers new insights into the nature of the Cartwheel."

The telescope has allowed scientists to examine galaxies up to 13.1 billion light-years away. The telescope's spectrograph permits NASA to explore galaxies' chemical composition.

The Webb telescope will replace the Hubble telescope as NASA's primary view of deep space.

NASA released the first set of images from the telescope on July 12.