Dwarf galaxy "Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM)" is brilliantly captured by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST)
NASA's James Webb Space Telescope's NIRCam has captured an amazing picture of a portion of the Dwarf Galaxy "Wolf–Lundmark–Melotte (WLM)" with spectacular results.
The image demonstrates Webb’s remarkable ability to resolve faint stars outside the Milky Way.
Interesting facts about this dwarf galaxy, WLM
The Wolf Lundmark Melotte (WLM) Galaxy is a Dwarf Galaxy located approximately 3 million light-years from Earth.
The WLM Galaxy is one of the most distant members of the Local Galaxy Group in the constellation Cetus which includes our Milky Way galaxy.
WLM is a dwarf galaxy in our galactic neighborhood. It is very close to our Milky Way Galaxy, but it is also relatively isolated.
While many other nearby galaxies are intertwined and entangled with the Milky Way, making them difficult to study.
The isolated nature and lack of interaction with other galaxies make the WLM useful in studying how stars evolve in small galaxies.
Another interesting and important thing about WLM is that its gas is similar to the gas from which galaxies formed in the early universe. Although WLM has been producing stars lately.
The WLM Galaxy's gas is similar to that of galaxies that formed in the early universe, with no elements heavier than Hydrogen and Helium.
This is because the WLM has lost many of these elements that we call the galactic wind. These winds come from supernovae or exploding stars.
These characteristics make the WLM ideal for studying how stars form and evolve in small galaxies, such as those in the early universe.
By determining the properties of these low-mass stars, such as their age, we can gain insight into what was happening in the very distant past.
WLM was first observed in the year 2016 with the help of the Spitzer Space Telescope. However, there is a lot of clarity in the picture of James Webb.
The JWST image of the WLM describes the viewing of an array of different stars at different points in their evolution with different colors, sizes, temperatures, and ages.
The JWST image also shows clouds of molecular gas and dust, called nebulas, that contain the raw material for star formation within the WLM.
The WLM galaxy was discovered in the year 1909. It was attributed to Knut Lundmark and Philibert Jacques Melotte in 1926.