Don’t let anyone dull your shine 💫 The heart of galaxy M77 is shining so brightly in this Webb telescope image, it nearly outshines the galaxy itself. The intense glow is due to gas being pulled into a tight and rapid orbit around the central black hole. The motion of the gas heats it up, releasing tremendous amounts of radiation. The first image is Webb’s mid-infrared view with swirling filaments of dust shown in blue. The glowing orange bubbles along the arms are being carved out by newly-formed star clusters. In the second image, the near-infrared reveals a bar spanning 6,000 light-years across the central region. This bar is enclosed by a bright ring, called a starburst ring, formed by the inner ends of the galaxy’s two spiral arms. Starburst regions in galaxies are zones of high star formation rates. The third image is a composite image, combining both mid and near-infrared shots into one. Those bright orange lines radiating out of the center of all images are diffraction spikes, an optical effect caused by the telescope itself. When observing a bright object such as a star, the light gets slightly bent (or diffracted) around some of the telescope’s structures. Due to Webb’s optics, its images have a six-plus-two-pointed pattern around bright objects. Hubble images have four-pointed patterns due to its structure. Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Leroy #NASA #Webb #Galaxy