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Cartwheel Galaxy (and others)

A composite image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, which formed about 400 million years ago.
A composite image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, which formed about 400 million years ago. Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team

The Cartwheel Galaxy is 500 million light-years from Earth and was imaged by Webb in August 2022. It formed from two colliding galaxies, and is located in the constellation Sculptor. The galaxy’s outer ring has been expanding for the past 440 million years.

“The new Webb image of the Cartwheel galaxy is a visceral illustration of how violent galactic collisions trigger waves of new stars,” Webb project scientist Klaus Pontoppidan told Gizmodo at the time. “This allows us to better understand the build-up of galaxies in the early Universe.”

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