James Webb captures stunning images of Cartwheel Galaxy located 500 million light-years away

The James Webb Space Telescope has already stunned the world with remarkable images in a short span of time.
In the latest series of images, the giant telescope has captured colourful images of the Cartwheel Galaxy.

NASA and the European Space Agency said that the telescope has managed to capture the galaxy's spinning ring of colour with unprecedented clarity, cutting through time and huge amounts of dust.


The galaxy is located around 500 million light-years from Earth in the Sculptor constellation. According to Nasa, the galaxy gained its Cartwheel shape during a head-on collision between two galaxies.

"The impact sent two rings expanding from the galaxy's centre, "like ripples in a pond after a stone is tossed into it," NASA and the ESA said in a joint statement.

The Cartwheel Galaxy sports two rings -- a bright inner ring and a surrounding, colourful ring.

A smaller white ring remains closer to the galaxy's centre, while the outer ring, with its spokes of colour, has been expanding into the universe for around 440 million years, the statement added.

Nasa said the images have revealed new details about star formation in the galaxy, as well as the behaviour of the supermassive black hole at its heart.

It was also able to detect regions rich in hydrocarbons and other chemicals, as well as dust that is similar to dust on Earth.

The galaxy displays many individual blue dots, which are individual stars or pockets of star formation.

"While Webb gives us a snapshot of the current state of the Cartwheel, it also provides insight into what happened to this galaxy in the past and how it will evolve in the future," the agency said.