Located 27 million light-years from Earth, the Whirlpool Galaxy, also known as M51 or NGC 5194, is a beautiful and unique-looking spiral galaxy. And now the James Webb Space Telescope has captured a perfect picture of a spinning galaxy trapped in an intricate dance with its nearest neighbor.
The new image, released August 29 by the European Space Agency (ESA), shows the long spiral arms of the Vortex Galaxy in vivid color and detail. The galaxy is thought to be caught in a cosmic dance with its closest neighbor, the dwarf galaxy known as NGC 5195. It is believed that M51’s unique appearance is due to this closest neighbor.
As ESA explains in its previous observations of the Vortex Galaxy, when NGC 5195 passes by the large galaxy, its gravitational force “creates ripples within the Whirlpool’s pancake disk.” The ESA says these waves are like ripples in a pool, slowly spinning outward as they expand.
These waves give the Vortex Galaxy a unique and majestic appearance and help its outer spirals to be so prominently seen with ease. ESA says these latest Webb observations of the Vortex Galaxy are part of a collective observation series called Feedback on Outer Galaxy Ascending Star Clusters, or FEAST. FEAST hopes to learn more about the interplay of star formation outside our own galaxy.
The published composite image was created by masking data from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) and Near Infrared Camera (NIRcam). By looking at the galaxy in two different spectra, astronomers can dig deeper and learn more about the material that makes up this unique galaxy.
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