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| Webb’s new near-infrared image of the Sombrero galaxy reveals outer dust blocking inner starlight. |
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has delivered a striking new near-infrared image of the iconic Sombrero galaxy, revealing intricate details of its structure and deepening astronomers’ understanding of its complex history. Captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) in early 2025, the image illuminates the galaxy’s massive central bulge while revealing how dust in its outer disk blocks some starlight.
This follow-up observation comes after a mid-infrared view of the galaxy taken by Webb in late 2024. By studying galaxies like the Sombrero across multiple wavelengths—including visible light from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope—scientists can trace how stars, dust, and gas interact and evolve over billions of years.
In visible light, the Sombrero’s iconic dark dust lane stands out sharply. But in Webb’s near-infrared image, this feature is less prominent. That’s because infrared light, with its longer wavelengths, passes through dust more easily than visible light, revealing more of the galaxy’s hidden structure. In contrast, mid-infrared imaging captures the dust itself glowing.
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| Webb’s split view of the Sombrero galaxy shows near-infrared on the left and mid-infrared on the right. |
Located approximately 30 million light-years from Earth at the edge of the Virgo galaxy cluster, the Sombrero galaxy (also known as M104) has a mass equivalent to about 800 billion Suns and is seen nearly edge-on from Earth—just six degrees off its equator. This vantage point allows astronomers to detect subtle features, such as a warp in the galaxy’s inner disk, which curves inward like a shallow funnel rather than lying flat.
These structural quirks, along with chemical signatures from the galaxy’s globular clusters—ancient star groups numbering around 2,000—hint at a violent past. Spectroscopic studies have revealed unexpected variations in the chemical compositions of stars within these clusters, suggesting the galaxy may have merged with at least one other system in the distant past.
Thanks to Webb’s high-resolution capabilities, the new image also resolves individual red giant stars, which appear prominently due to their cooler temperatures and large sizes. While smaller, hotter blue stars shine brightly in near-infrared light, they tend to fade in mid-infrared views, giving astronomers a tool to distinguish stellar populations.
In the cosmic background of the NIRCam image, distant galaxies of varying shapes and colors dot the scene. Their different hues provide further insight into their distances and compositions, offering astronomers a richer understanding of the broader universe.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the most advanced space observatory ever built. A collaboration between NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Webb continues to unlock new frontiers in astronomy—from probing nearby exoplanets to peering into the earliest moments of the cosmos.