James Webb Telescope captures incredible details of Sombreiro galaxy

The United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently released a new image of the Messier 104 (M104) galaxy. The cosmic region, also known as the Sombreiro galaxy or NGC 4594, is named for its Mexican hat-like appearance. – No wonder the word ‘sombrero’ means ‘hat’ in Spanish.

The image was captured by JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and reveals a symmetrical, smooth, disk-shaped core. While this isn’t the first time the galaxy has been recorded by scientists, previous images were taken by the Hubble Telescope and had some limitations due to technology.

The image taken by Hubble used instruments that record the visible light spectrum, so the result showed a nucleus with more intense brightness. The image, taken from the James Webb Telescope while collecting infrared data of the galaxy, revealed a core with a softer glow.

With the data collected by MIRI, astronomers can better understand the distribution of cosmic dust in the galaxy. To contain, For the first time, it has been possible to observe the outer ring, which contains dust clumps that may indicate an active area of ​​star formation.

“Mid-infrared light highlights gas and dust, a feature of star formation occurring in the outer disk of the Sombreiro galaxy,” an official publication by James Webb describes.

Sombrero Galaxy

Although the Sombreiro galaxy presents features associated with star formation, not a place of intense stellar activity.

By comparison, the Messier 82 (M82) galaxy, also studied by the James Webb Telescope, produces 10 times more stars than the Milky Way. While M104 produces less than one solar mass per year, our galaxy produces up to two solar masses of stars in the same period.

Also included in the image is the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy, known as the low-luminosity active galactic nucleus (AGN). In addition, the Sombreiro galaxy contains around two thousand globular clusters in its structure..

“In the image taken by MIRI, galaxies of different shapes and colors appear scattered in the background of space. The changing colors of these galaxies can provide astronomers with information about their properties, including how distant they are,” an ESA publication explains.

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