![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/thumbnails\/image\/ngc7496.png\" "\\"\\"\/")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n The images from\u00a0Webb\u2019s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI)\u00a0reveal the presence of a network of highly structured features within these galaxies \u2013 glowing cavities of dust and huge cavernous bubbles of gas that line the spiral arms. In some regions of the nearby galaxies observed, this web of features appears built from both individual and overlapping shells and bubbles where young stars are releasing energy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAreas which are completely dark in Hubble imaging light up in exquisite detail in these new infrared images, allowing us to study how the dust in the interstellar medium has absorbed the light from forming stars and emitted it back out in the infrared, illuminating an intricate network of gas and dust,\u201d said team member Karin Sandstrom of the University of California, San Diego. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The high-resolution imaging needed to study these structures has long evaded astronomers \u2013 until Webb came into the picture. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe PHANGS team has spent years observing these galaxies at optical, radio, and ultraviolent wavelengths using NASA\u2019s Hubble Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter\/Submillimeter Array, and the Very Large Telescope\u2019s Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer,\u201d added team member Adam Leroy of the Ohio State University. \u201cBut, the earliest stages of a star\u2019s lifecycle have remained out of view because the process is enshrouded within gas and dust clouds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Webb\u2019s powerful infrared capabilities can pierce through the dust to connect the missing puzzle pieces. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, specific wavelengths observable by MIRI (7.7 and 11.3 microns) and Webb\u2019s Near-Infrared Camera (3.3 microns) are sensitive to emission from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which play a critical role in the formation of stars and planets. These molecules were detected by Webb in the first observations by the PHANGS program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Studying these interactions at the finest scale can help provide insights into the larger picture of how galaxies have evolved over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause these observations are taken as part of what’s called a treasury program, they are available to the public as they are observed and received on Earth,\u201d said Eva Schinnerer of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg, Germany, and leader of the PHANGS collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PHANGS team will work to create and release data sets that align Webb\u2019s data to each of the complementary data sets obtained previously from the other observatories, to help accelerate discovery by the broader astronomical community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThanks to the telescope’s resolution, for the first time we can conduct a complete census of star formation, and take inventories of the interstellar medium bubble structures in nearby galaxies beyond the Local Group,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThat census will help us understand how star formation and its feedback imprint themselves on the interstellar medium, then give rise to the next generation of stars, or how it actually impedes the next generation of stars from being formed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The research by the PHANGS team is being conducted as part of\u00a0General Observer program 2107. The team\u2019s initial findings, comprised of 21 individual studies, were recently published in a\u00a0special focus issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We recommend you: NASA\u2019s Satellites Help with Turkey, Syria Earthquake Response<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n