The new James Webb Telescope image looks like it’s from a science fiction movie

Gabriel Brammer, an astronomer at the Center for Cosmic Dawn at the University of Copenhagen, surprised the world when, after processing the data he had sent James Webb Telescope NASA shared on Twitter an image of the distant galaxy Messier 74.

The Danish scientist posted on his personal account on the social network the remarkable result of his work: an amazing photo of Violet spiral galaxy. An image that looks like something out of a science fiction movie.

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Messier 74 (M74) was observed on July 17 by the medium-infrared (Miri) instrument on the James Webb Telescope. From the data that NASA scientists made available to the public, the astronomer was able to Create the perfect photo by combining three of the four filters in which the galaxy has been photographed.

The M47’s quirky, lively filaments that stand out in the composition make the picture resemble some fanciful descriptions of the so-called time vortices – The dimensional level through which, for example, the TARDIS machine in “Doctor Who” travels in time-.

These conspicuous filamentous structures – the “arms” of the galaxy – are emissions of interstellar dust and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon molecules loose in space.

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What is the true color of Messier 74

In reference to the galaxy’s stunning violet color, it’s not actually a true reflection of what the James Webb Space Telescope saw, but rather Composition of three monochrome images.

However, the astronomer explained it There is no “true color” version of any of James Webb’s photosmeaning that it represents how a person can perceive it with eyes with a diameter of 6.5 meters.

Brunner added that the galaxy appears purple because of interstellar smoke emissions Molecules shine brighter when seen through red and blue filters, relative to green.

What is Messier 74 and where is it located?

The Messier 74 galaxy is a fairly popular target among astronomers and hobbyists. The reason is that Relatively close – only 35 million light-years away, in the constellation Pisces – It is perfectly oriented towards the ground. This means that we can clearly see its spiral arms wrapping around the core and out into interstellar space in a counterclockwise direction.