James Webb Space Telescope Feed Post

3D Classifications for Distant Galaxies in Webb’s CEERS Survey (NIRCam Image)

This image: These are examples of distant galaxies captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope in its Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) Survey. Recent research of the CEERS field led by Viraj Pandya, a NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York, showed that galaxies frequently appear flat and elongated, like pool noodles or surfboards (along the top row). Thin, circular disk-like galaxies, which resemble frisbees, are the next major grouping (bottom left and center). Finally, galaxies that are shaped like spheres, or volleyballs, made up the smallest fraction of their detections (bottom right). All of these galaxies are estimated to have existed when the universe was 600 million to 6 billion years old. These results are still considered preliminary, because the team sorted images of galaxies into broad classes based on similar characteristics. (They did not classify their individual appearances since that would require detailed information from data known as spectra.) Much more analysis of many more distant galaxies is needed to fully determine which galaxy shapes and compositions existed in the early universe. Learn more: www.nasa.gov/missions/webb/webb-shows-many-early-galaxies... Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Steve Finkelstein (UT Austin), Micaela Bagley (UT Austin), Rebecca Larson (UT Austin) Image description: Six galaxies appear in boxes, three by two. From top left to bottom right: The three galaxies in the top row are labeled, elongated appearance. All three galaxies appear to form thin lines that take up less than a quarter of the frame. The galaxy at top left has a horizontal thin line with two dots beneath it; the center galaxy is a short line from top left to bottom right made up of individual dots, with a haze toward the center-left; the right galaxy is the longest line, angles from top left to bottom right, and has several dim dots above it. Along the lower row, the galaxies at left and center, labeled disk-like appearances, have hazy spiral shapes, and each take up about half of the frame. The galaxy at lower right, labeled spherical appearance, looks like a bright dot centered in the frame and is far smaller. Image & Description by NASA