James Webb Telescope Captures a Stunning View of Cartwheel Galaxy

NASA has published photos of the rare galaxy dubbed Cartwheel, which was captured by the James Webb Space Telescope. It was able to peer into the chaos of the galaxy, shaping a new perspective on its formation over billions of years.

Cartwheel is located at a distance of about 500 million light-years from Earth in the Sculptor constellation, and its estimated diameter is 150 thousand light-years. The image taken by James Webb is rare because the Hubble telescope was unable to capture such a clear image before.

Cartwheel is a ring galaxy – a structure less common than spiral galaxies such as our Milky Way. Its shape is the result of a high-speed collision between a large spiral galaxy and a smaller galaxy not visible in the image.

Further observations will give an idea of what happened to this galaxy in the past and how it will change in the future.