Blog 6 –

Increased detail seen by the James Webb Telescope (NASA)

I’ve always been interested in the telescopes that we use to look into the distant galaxies. Hubble intrigued me as I was growing up and now its successor seems to be bringing in cool discoveries about galaxies pictured by Hubble. This telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, uses new technology that harnesses infrared light waves to see clearer, closer images of the far away Messier 82 galaxy. What is super interesting is the star formation trends being observed in this galaxy, which are currently 10 times more than that of our own Milky Way galaxy (NASA). The use of infrared has allowed Webb to see past dust and gasses that are in between us and the stars within this galaxy. Continuing to observe this galaxy will help us learn more about star formation in distant galaxies and compare them to our own, which will be extremely interesting in learning more specifics on how our sun was born.