Washington: NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has released a picture of a lone galaxy 3 million light years away from Earth.
The Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte dwarf galaxy was only seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2016, but since the instruments installed in it were not as advanced as the James Webb Space Telescope, the image showed faint starbursts.
Using the powerful mechanics of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA hopes to be able to reconstruct the star formation history of this galaxy. Regarding this galaxy, NASA believes that it came into existence billions of years ago.
This image release showcases the James Webb Space Telescope’s incredible ability to reveal stars far beyond the Milky Way galaxy in a way that has never been possible before.
The $10 billion telescope is equipped with a near-infrared camera that detects light from early stars and galaxies.
The Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte galaxy is in the neighborhood of our own galaxy, but is 10 times smaller than our own.
The galaxy was discovered in 1909 by Max Wolff, but details about it were presented in 1926 by Knut Lundmark and Philibert-Jacques Malotte.
The telescope’s observations were made under the Early Release Science Program 1334.
According to Kristen McQueen, an ERS scientist, although this galaxy is in the neighborhood of our galaxy, it is very isolated and does not have any connection with any other system.