Ring galaxies are rare, and galaxies with two rings are even more unusual.
It’s not easy being ringed. A newly released image from the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, shows the Cartwheel GalaxyThe Cartwheel Galaxy, so called because of its bright inner ring and colorful outer ring, lies about 500 million light-years from Earth. Astronomers think it used to be a large spiral like the Milky Way, until a smaller galaxy smashed through it. In earlier observations with other telescopes, the space between the rings appeared shrouded in dust.
When the Hubble Space Telescope observed the Cartwheel Galaxy in visible light , the spokes between the galaxy’s bright rings were barely visible wisps. JWST’s infrared eyes brought them into vivid focus . Near-infrared light traces newly forming stars; mid-infrared light highlights the galaxy’s chemistry. That strange shape means that the long-ago collision set up multiple waves of gas rippling back and forth in the galaxy left behind.
The effect probably means that the Cartwheel Galaxy has a long road to recovery ahead — and astronomers don’t know what it will look like in the end. As for the smaller galaxy that caused all this mayhem, it didn’t stick around to get its picture taken. “It’s gone off on its merry way,” Pontoppidan says.
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