This stunning spiral isn’t a gateway to the abyss. It’s the galaxy M83, as seen through the eyes of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). More specifically, the spaceborne observatory captured this image by tapping into one in all its powerful infrared devices, the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI).
Also often known as NGC 5236, M83 is a barred spiral galaxy situated about 15 million light-years from us. It’s of particular interest to astronomers attempting to learn more about star formation. The James Webb Space Telescope’s MIRI is their current tool of alternative in that quest because, as its name suggests, it observes the universe through infrared wavelengths between 5,000 and 28,000 nanometers. (By comparison, visible light, or the sunshine human eyes are built to see, has wavelengths between 380 and 750 nanometers.)
Within the image, vibrant blue regions in the center indicate areas of dense stars in M83’s galactic center. The brilliant yellow tendrils spindling out indicate stellar nurseries, or regions where large batches of recent stars are actively forming. And the orange-red splashes mark regions wealthy in polycyclic fragrant hydrocarbons, that are carbon-based compounds that MIRI’s wavelengths are perfect for detecting.
Astronomers turned MIRI onto M83 as a part of the Feedback in Emerging extragalactic Star clusters (FEAST) program. FEAST observations have the goal of understanding how star formation is linked to stellar feedback in galaxies. Stellar feedback refers back to the process through which stars eject matter and energy as they form.
By learning more about this relationship, astronomers can hone their models to higher decode how stars are born and the way they grow. FEAST will include observations of six total galaxies — and previously, FEAST astronomers turned JWST onto M51.