The James Webb Space Telescope is continuing to deliver astonishing images of deep space, with this latest one revealing the incredible beauty of M74, otherwise known as the Phantom Galaxy.
The Phantom Galaxy is around 32 million light years from our planet and according to ESA is “a type of spiral galaxy classified as a ‘grand design spiral’, meaning that its spiral arms are prominent and well-defined, unlike the patchy and ragged structure seen in some spiral galaxies.” Webb’s current work is part of a bigger project to map 19 nearby star-forming galaxies in the infrared, with Webb’s technology enabling astronomers to discover the precise location of star-forming regions within these galaxies. ESA says Webb can also help astronomers to gauge the masses and ages of star clusters, and learn more about the nature of the small grains of dust that drift about in interstellar space.