Webb captures luminous, face-on spiral galaxy NGC 7469

Webb’s image of the month for December is dominated by NGC 7469, a luminous, face-on spiral galaxy roughly 90,000 light-years in diameter that lies roughly 220 million light-years from Earth within the constellation Pegasus.

This spiral galaxy has just lately been studied as a part of the Nice Observatories All-sky LIRGs Survey (GOALS), which goals to check the physics of star formation, black hole progress, and suggestions in 4 close by, merging luminous infrared galaxies. Different galaxies studied as a part of the survey embrace earlier ESA Webb Photos of the Month II ZW 096 and IC 1623.

NGC 7469 is residence to an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is a particularly brilliant central area that’s dominated by the sunshine emitted by dust and fuel because it falls into the galaxy’s central black hole. This galaxy supplies astronomers with the distinctive alternative to check the connection between AGNs and starburst exercise as a result of this explicit object hosts an AGN that’s surrounded by a starburst ring at a distance of a mere 1500 light-years.

Whereas NGC 7469 is likely one of the greatest studied AGNs within the sky, the compact nature of this method and the presence of quite a lot of dust have made it tough for scientists to attain each the decision and sensitivity wanted to check this relationship within the infrared. Now, with Webb, astronomers can discover the galaxy’s starburst ring, the central AGN, and the fuel and dust in between.

Utilizing Webb’s MIRI, NIRCam and NIRspec devices to acquire photographs and spectra of NGC 7469 in unprecedented element, the GOALS crew has uncovered quite a few particulars in regards to the object. This contains very younger star-forming clusters by no means seen earlier than, in addition to pockets of very heat, turbulent molecular fuel, and direct proof for the destruction of small dust grains inside just a few hundred light-years of the nucleus—proving that the AGN is impacting the encircling interstellar medium.

Moreover, extremely ionized, diffuse atomic fuel appears to be exiting the nucleus at roughly 6.4 million kilometers per hour—a part of a galactic outflow that had beforehand been recognized from the bottom, however is now revealed in beautiful element with Webb. With evaluation of the wealthy Webb datasets nonetheless underway, further secrets and techniques of this native AGN and starburst laboratory are positive to be revealed.

A distinguished function of this picture is the putting six-pointed star that completely aligns with the guts of NGC 7469. In contrast to the galaxy, this isn’t an actual celestial object, however an imaging artifact often known as a diffraction spike, attributable to the brilliant, unresolved AGN. Diffraction spikes are patterns produced as mild bends across the sharp edges of a telescope.

Webb has three struts, with two angled at 150 levels from its vertical strut, and its primary mirror consists of hexagonal segments that every include edges for mild to diffract towards. Webb’s struts are designed in order that their diffraction spikes partially overlap with these created by the mirrors. Each of those result in Webb’s complicated star sample.