Webb’s views of NGC 5068 (NIRCam and MIRI images)

This video highlights two views of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 5068 as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The galaxy’s bright central bar is visible in the upper left of this image. NGC 5068 lies around 17 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.

With its ability to peer through the gas and dust enshrouding newborn stars, the Webb is the perfect telescope to explore the processes governing star formation. Stars and planetary systems are born amongst swirling clouds of gas and dust that are opaque to visible-light observatories like Hubble or the VLT. The keen vision at infrared wavelengths of two of Webb’s instruments — MIRI and NIRCam — allowed astronomers to see right through the gargantuan clouds of dust in NGC 5068 and capture the processes of star formation as they happened. Both of these views are highlighted in this video.