NASA's new views of a famous galaxy are more than a screensaver

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope has unveiled new views of the galaxy Centaurus A — drawing back thick curtains of dust to expose a core packed with millions of stars. 

The dazzling images have been released to celebrate Webb's fourth year of studying the universe. They reveal a spaghetti bowl of glowing dust, a warped band of gas (in the shape of Tennessee) cutting across the galaxy's center, and a hungry supermassive black hole hidden deep within.

The pictures are spectacular to zoom in on and explore, as with much of NASA's best high definition screensaver-style imagery. But they're also a chance to see some of the universe's most incredible forces at work.

Centaurus A is effectively a laboratory for the events that have shaped galaxies across the cosmos: Galaxies collide; Black holes grow; Stars are born, die, and seed the next generation of stars.

Because Centaurus A is relatively close — about 11 million light-years away — the infrared telescope can examine those processes better than it can in galaxies much farther from home. Every new detail here helps astronomers understand how all galaxies evolve over billions of years.

And this galaxy has plenty of stories to tell.

Roughly 2 billion years ago, Centaurus slammed into another galaxy, leaving behind a warped disk of gas and dust that still stretches across its middle. 

But the collision wasn't mortally wounding. Deep inside Centaurus, a supermassive black hole continues to feast on surrounding material while unleashing powerful jets and energy that ripple through the galaxy.

Previous observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope could only see part of this picture, according to NASA. Visible light was blocked by dense dust, while earlier infrared observatories, such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, lacked the sharp vision needed to separate individual stars. Webb, which primarily uses infrared light, produces much sharper images.

Result: what once looked like a hazy glow is now a crowded landscape of countless stars. By comparing stars of different ages, astronomers can reconstruct the galaxy's past, identifying which stars existed before the collision, which ones were born during that upheaval, and which ones formed afterward.

After combining the near and mid-infrared telescope data, Centaurus A's warped band of gas across the center becomes even more prominent. Credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / A. Pagan / J. DePasquale / M. Garcia Marin

The new images also reveal delicate filaments and glowing clouds of dust, along with a mysterious S-shaped structure near the center. Scientists can't say yet exactly what created it, but it may be linked to the ancient collision, the black hole's activity, or both.

Webb can also break the galaxy's light into its component colors to measure how gas is moving. Early observations show warm hydrogen gas rotating near the black hole while other gas rushes outward.

This offers new clues about how black holes can both create and destroy. They trigger new stars to form by squeezing gas molecules together, and also shut down star formation down by blasting gas away.

Try getting your screensaver to do that.