NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has released an image of a lone galaxy 3 million light-years away from Earth. This dwarf galaxy, named Wolf, Lundmark, Melote, was only observed by the Spitzer Space Telescope in 2016, but because the instruments installed in it were not as advanced as the James Webb Space Telescope. That’s why the starbursts are visible in this image. Using the powerful mechanics of the James Webb Space Telescope, NASA hopes to be able to reconstruct the galaxy’s star formation history.
NASA believes that this galaxy was formed billions of years ago. This image release demonstrates the James Webb Space Telescope’s incredible ability to reveal stars far beyond the Milky Way galaxy in a way never before possible. The telescope is equipped with a near-infrared camera that detects light from early stars and galaxies.
The Wolf, Lundmark, Melote 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 Melotte.
This observation was made by the telescope under Early Release Science Program 1334. According to Kristen McQueen, a scientist at ERS, although this galaxy is in the neighborhood of our galaxy, it is very isolated and does not have any connection with any other system.
