Appearing as just a small patch of stars, UGCA 307 is a diminutive dwarf galaxy without a defined structure - resembling nothing more than a hazy patch of passing cloud. The small galaxy consists of a diffuse band of stars containing red bubbles of gas that mark regions of recent star formation, and lies roughly 26 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Corvus. (Infrared is the term scientists use to refer to light that has wavelengths longer than humans can detect with the naked eye.UGCA 307 hangs against an irregular backdrop of distant galaxies in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. MIRI is the only Webb instrument that is sensitive to light in mid-infrared wavelengths, a type of wavelength that can only be observed by telescopes outside of Earth’s atmosphere. The trails appear as mere dots, with one lying directly below the bar-shaped center of NGC 5068 and two more in the bottom-left corner, according to the space agency. In this image, three asteroid trails are also easily discernible. The MIRI image most clearly shows the “dusty structure” of NGC 5068 and the orbs of gas that contain clusters of new stars, according to NASA. Webb collected two new images of the NGC 5068 galaxy that were released June 2 - one captured by the telescope’s Near-Infrared Camera, or NIRCam, and the other by the Mid-Infrared Instrument, or MIRI. Other data in that catalog include images of the Phantom Galaxy M74 and another dazzling spiral galaxy called IC 5332. Piecing together all that data can “give astronomers an unprecedented opportunity to piece together the minutiae of star formation,” according to NASA, and brings scientists closer to new discoveries.

This image shows the NGC 5068 galaxy as captured by the James Webb Space Telescope's MIRI instrument. The other reason these snapshots pique scientists’ interest is that they build on an existing trove of data collected by instruments, including the Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile. “By observing the formation of stars in nearby galaxies, astronomers hope to kick-start major scientific advances with some of the first available data from Webb,” according to NASA. One is that studying areas where stars are formed advances astronomers’ understanding of fundamental aspects of the universe - helping to unlock the mysteries surrounding how galaxies form. There are two reasons why, according to NASA.

Captured by a variety of instruments from a range of faraway galaxies, these star-forming regions are particularly intriguing to astronomers. These new snapshots of NGC 5068 add to a growing repository of data on areas of the observable universe where stars are born. And the celestial body lies within the Virgo constellation, which is home to an enormous cluster of galaxies. The NGC 5068 galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, the same type as our home Milky Way.

The James Webb Space Telescope set its sights on a galaxy 20 million light-years away, capturing a dazzling star-forming galaxy in images streaked with the signature of passing asteroids.Ī bright band in the upper left corner of the images shows the bright, bar-shaped center of the galaxy, according to a NASA news release.

Nasa hubble telescope images of earth