Our James Webb Space Telescope just released highly detailed images of 19 spiral galaxies!

These observations add new near and mid-infrared puzzle pieces to the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program, a worldwide astronomy project.

In addition to these images, the PHANGS team has also released the largest catalog to date of roughly 100,000 star clusters. By precisely cataloging all types of stars we can build a detailed holistic view of their lifecycles.

Image descriptions:

Image 1 - NGC 1087’s core takes the shape of a short light yellow line. Its muddled, orange arms start at the center and extend to the top and bottom, rotating clockwise.

Image 2 - NGC 3627, a face-on barred spiral galaxy. Its core is made up of a bright blue dot surrounded by a lighter blue haze of stars, forming an angled oval. Two distinct arms start out appearing brown or greenish within the blue bar and extend to the edges in bright oranges.

Image 3 - The core of NGC 7496 starts as a bright white dot that melts into bright oranges. Eight prominent spikes emanate from the center. A bright orange arc that looks like a backward S forms a bar and two of the arms. The image is largely in orange and red and flows counterclockwise.