New Galactic Images From the James Webb Space Telescope

A new collection of images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope was recently released, showing incredibly detailed views of spiral galaxies in near- and mid-infrared light. Comparing these new images with previous views seen by NASA’s other space telescope, Hubble, in visible and ultraviolet light, reveals new galactic structures and elements. The infrared images from JWST highlight the glowing lanes and clouds of dust lying within the spiral arms of each galaxy. These JWST images are part of a long-standing project called the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) program. Gathered below are a dozen of these new views combined with older ones from Hubble.