NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled new views of the galaxy Centaurus A — drawing back thick curtains of dust to expose a core packed with millions of stars. The dazzling images have been released to celebrate Webb's fourth year of studying the universe. They reveal a spaghetti bowl of glowing dust, a warped band of gas (in the shape of Tennessee) cutting across the galaxy's center, and a hungry supermassive black hole hidden deep within.The pictures are spectacular to zoom in on and explore, as with much of NASA's best high definition screensaver-style imagery. But they're also a chance to see some of the universe's most incredible forces at work.
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Centaurus A is effectively a laboratory for the events that have shaped galaxies across the cosmos: Galaxies collide; Black holes grow; Stars are born, die, and seed the next generation of stars. Because Centaurus A is relatively close — about 11 million light-years away — the infrared telescope can examine those processes better than it can in galaxies much farther from home. Every new detail here helps astronomers understand how all galaxies evolve over billions of years.And this galaxy has plenty of stories to tell.
